all four were inspired by french surrealists such as raymond roussel, pierre reverdy, and guillaume apollinaire. david lehman, in his book on the new york poets, wrote: "they favored wit, humor and the advanced irony of the blague (that is, the insolent prank or jest) in ways more suggestive of jasper johns and robert rauschenberg than of the new york school abstract expressionist painters after whom they were named."