Born in Newark in 1926, Allen Ginsberg would grow up to be one of America’s most influential and controversial poets. His expertise is present in poems like “America” and “Supermarket in California”. In these poems, Ginsberg uses free verse poetry and a constant flow of ideas to make his point. These ideas are accurately represented to show his true beliefs because everything is instantaneously flowing. This flow of words in his poems can especially be seen in “America”, and as a literary critic Caitlin Stanley referred to it as “spontaneous composition”. Both of these poems are critiques and admiration poems about America. He is able to reflect his controversial positions of the time by trying to fight against the conformity and issues of …show more content…
Allen Ginsberg sees the increase in U.S involvement in the Cold War and the rise of the Red Scare as flaws in the government. Although America is doing so many bad things, the country still has the potential for so much more. In these poems, Ginsberg is able capture the times in which he lived in. These poems are also able to show how he was a pioneer of the Beat generation and would precede the coming backlash of the 1960s. In “Supermarket in California” Ginsberg is able to make the perfect setting for the rise of this consumer culture in an ordinary American grocery store. He uses the walk through the grocery to contrast Whitman’s walk through America. In this grocery store, he is commenting on the idea that Americans now only care for buying thing and not being individuals. There is a scene when he says, “Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas?” and then he says, “I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you” (Line 12). These are references to the loss of the connection we once had to our foods. During the time of Whitman’s America we were all farmers connected …show more content…
by Allen Ginsberg, is able to successfully put forth his views on what has happened to America. He is able to take his personal political and ideological isolation and put it into a poem showing the flaws of America (english.illinois.edu). Though he feels America has been corrupted over the years he still has a certain admiration for the country. In both poems, he is able to criticize and show the love and potential which our country has. In a time of such conformity, in the 50s, this was truly amazing, and Ginsberg is able capture these problems in his poems. When he says he wants to “[put] my queer shoulder to the wheel.” He truly is able to. By the end of the 1950s, America had begun to change. The backlash to the conformity of the 50s is the counter culture of the 60s, which Ginsberg incredibly predated. He was a revolutionary for the time and truly brought a change to America that would last for many years to
Allen Ginsberg’s revolutionary poem, Howl, is a powerful portrayal of life degraded. It represents the harsh life of the beat generation and chronicles the struggles of the repressed. Howl is a poem of destruction. Destruction of mind, body, and soul through the oppression of the individual. Using powerful diction, Allen Ginsberg describes this abolition of life and its implications through our human understanding of abstractions like Time, Eternity, and self. The poem’s jumbled phrasing and drastic emotion seems to correspond with the minds of the people it describes. Ginsberg uses surprisingly precise and purposeful writing to weave the complex
Allen Ginsberg’s collection Howl and Other Poems is a collection of poems that exudes rebellion. Every word and every stanza that Ginsberg writes throughout every single one of the poems is fueled with intentionality, and is used very purposefully to achieve a greater meaning. The entire collection is an allegory, Ginsberg publishes it in 1956, a time period
American poetry, unlike other nations’ poetry, is still in the nascent stage because of the absence of a history in comparison to other nations’ poetry humming with matured voices. Nevertheless, in the past century, American poetry has received the recognition it deserves from the creative poetic compositions of Walt Whitman, who has been called “the father of American poetry.” His dynamic style and uncommon content is well exhibited in his famous poem “Song of Myself,” giving a direction to the American writers of posterity. In addition, his distinct use of the line and breath has had a huge impression on the compositions of a number of poets, especially on the works of the present-day poet Allen Ginsberg, whose debatable poem “Howl”
It was a 1951 TIME cover story, which dubbed the Beats a ‘Silent Generation, ’ that led to Allen Ginsberg’s retort in his poem ‘America,’ in which he vocalises a frustration at this loss of self- importance. The fifties Beat Generation, notably through Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl as will here be discussed, fought to revitalise individuality and revolutionise their censored society which seemed to produce everything for the masses at the expense of the individual’s creative and intellectual potential. Indeed, as John Clellon Holmes once noted: “TIME magazine called them the Silent Generation, but this may have been because TIME was not
Ginsberg understood that the public has always been lied to, and the media continues to feed us the fabrications. The persona in “America” soon comes to accept the injustice by stating, “It occurs to me that I am America. / I am talking to myself again” (46-47). As other nations also view the media, they also see what Ginsberg noted. The American public acts neurotically, impulsively, and ignorantly when posed with threats residing in our country and neighboring countries because manipulation comes so easy through media. Eliot Katz also mentions in Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg that “In “America,” the nation is not viewed as an external entity, but rather as a collective whose fate is literally linked with the poet’s own . . . ” (132). He willingly conforms to society, highlighting the communal assistance that can be provided to increase political
Similar to Marx, Ginsberg is against the idea of a small fraction of the people having significant control and power. Even though the poem is harsh on America, the goal of the author is not to shun or shame the country but try to better it. He is an extremely critical patriot trying to correct America’s flaws.
With reference to Ginsberg's emulation of Walt Whitman's content, the Norton Anthology, Postmodern American Poetry, states that, "Ginsberg proposed a return to the immediacy, egalitarianism and visionary ambitions of Blake and Whitman." (130). His poem "America" caters toward themes of democracy, something Whitman's poetry also does. Yet unlike Whitman, Ginsberg takes a more questioning stance on America and does not use his poem to praise the nation.
Ginsberg reflects on the satire of people worshipping American culture when it is actually the cause of their trouble. Which glorifies a civilization restricting you to normality, and destroying the best minds. These parts take the reader behind Ginsberg’s belief of the “best minds” American culture changes across the fundamental desires to destroy them.
Century apart, Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman share similar cultural, political and moral values, which they express in their literary work. Whitman’s writing is considered controversial for the eighteen hundreds. He sets the stage for generations to come breaking way from the strict Victorian poetic tradition by writing in free verse. Ginsberg follows his footsteps when composing his poem “Howl” by writing in long lines almost resembling prose and subdividing the poem into several parts. Likewise, he uses numerous repetitions to achieve rhythmicity of his verse. Ginsberg’s poem is heavily influenced by Whitman’s philosophy. The works “Song of myself” and “Howl” are similar in ideas, structure and underling themes. The two authors protest against old traditions imposed on the individual by corrupt society, stand against conformity and put emphasis on the need for change. They identify with their generation and dwell on themes such as sexuality, religion and the state of American society.
This poem is sometimes referred to as a violent “howl” of human anguish. It attacks the forces of conformity and mechanization that Ginsberg believed destroyed the best minds of his generation. This poem has no real structure or rational connection of ideas, and the rules of grammar are abandoned in order to pack imagery into one line. The poem points the way toward a new and better existence, chronicling the pilgrimage of the “mad generation” toward a reality that is timeless and placeless, holy and eternal.
Therefore, in the very beginning, Ginsberg presents to the reader the subject and tone of the poem in the context of this question. Ginsberg’s questions make the audience realize the seriousness of the issues that this poem discusess, such as America, politics, war, humanity, and ethics.
Walt Whitman is regarded as one of the most influential poets in American history while Allen Ginsberg was and still is considered a leading figure of the Beat Generation. Both of these poets have similar poetic tendencies even though they were almost a century apart from each other. Walt Whitman helped to inspire many literary descendants ranging from writers to poets alike. One of his most famous poems is in his book, “Leaves of Grass”, called “Song of Myself”. Allen Ginsberg can be considered one of Walt Whitman’s literary descendants due to the numerous similarities between “Song of Myself” and Ginsberg’s “Howl”, which is about the real experiences of Americans after World War II.
Allen Ginsberg was one of the founding fathers of what is considered the Beat Generation and the Beat Movement. Throughout his entire life he wrote multiple poems which voiced his certain opinions and thoughts about what America had been going through at the time. American poet, writer, and philosopher, Allen Ginsberg uses his life experiences and ideas on resistance, freedom, and the Beat Movement to express specific ideas within his poems.
America by Allen Ginsburg. In this poem, Walt Whitman is upset with America. In the specific lines Walt Whitman talk about his anger towards the government and more. He then goes on to talk about how America once inspired him to become a saint. When he says such, he starts to refer to the American dream. America inspired him to become pure by doing the opposite of what the country was doing. The speaker energy changes in throughout the stanza. Instead of ranting he just wants to come to a mutual agreement with the U.S. Then he refers to another writer William Burroughs who was known for being a good writer, killing his wife during a drunken game, and being a drug addict. The speaker does this to express how his close friend moved to Tangiers to get away. However, when he went he continued to write and do drugs, in other words, he continued to sin. Mr. Ginsburg is asking if America is sinister like Mr. Burroughs. At the end, the speaker has not come to his point, however he’s getting closer to doing so. This stanza shows how the speaker switches from being upset with America to bringing other countries into the
What Allen Ginsberg did in 1955 was unthinkable. In the midst of McCarthyism and severe anticommunist sentiment, he wrote a poem in which he admitted having belonged to the Communist party. Yet, even more surprising was that he didn't stop there. In his poem "America," Allen Ginsberg challenges the beliefs and values that the United States has always cherished, leaving no stone unturned, and no feather unruffled. Always the cynic and revolutionary, Ginsberg slaughters the sacred cows.