Hello and welcome to the Discourse! Allen Ginsberg was a prominent poet of America and an influential figure in the Beat Generation. His literary contributions span poetry, essays, and other forms of writing. He was born on June 3 1926 and died on April 5, 1997. His major poetic collections include "Howl and Other Poems" (1956), "Kaddish and Other Poems" (1961), "The Fall of America" (1973), "Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992" (1994), and "The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice" (1973). He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995 for his book Cosmopolitan Greetings.
Some of his most influential poems include "America" (1956), "A Supermarket in California" (1956), and "Sunflower Sutra" (1955). Ginsberg was hugely influenced by the works of the English poet and artist William Blake, the American poet Walt Whitman, and the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. In his poem America, he took inspiration from the epic, free verse style of the 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman. Both wrote passionately about the promise (and betrayal) of American democracy, the central importance of erotic experience, and the spiritual quest for the truth of everyday existence. He also took inspiration from other Modernist poets like William Carlos Williams.
Structure of America:
"America" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1956. It reflects the poet's feelings about the political and social landscape of the United States during that period. Ginsberg's work often incorporates Beat Generation themes, including counterculture, critique of materialism, and a deep exploration of personal and national identity.
It is a long poem (93 lines) written in eight stanzas of differing lengths. The poem is written in irregular meter or free verse style. The first stanza has sixteen lines, the second and third consist of twelve lines, the fourth and fifth stanzas consist of ten lines each and the last stanza has 33 lines. He followed an irregular rhythm and stream-of-consciousness style to compose this poem. The poem includes a series of rhetorical questions and statements that challenge the status quo.
The poem is a strong critique of American Society. Ginsberg critiques capitalism, war, and consumerism. The poet raises questions against nuclear warfare, foreign policy in Asia, racial unrest in the US, and resistance against communism. The poem is set in the 1950s, the period of the Cold War, the time after the World Wars, when America faced a terrible economic surge.
Ginsberg used Apostrophe, Personification, Anaphora, and Rhetorical Questions in the poem.
Summary of America:
1st Stanza
Lines 1-16
“America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.
America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17, 1956.
I can’t stand my own mind.
(…)
I’m sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?”
In the first stanza, Ginsberg sets the tone for a poem that is both a personal and societal commentary. He introduces the idea, time, and context of the poem. The 1st stanza sets the themes of the poem which are Disillusionment, Rebellion, and Cultural Identity.
The stanza captures a sense of disappointment with the American Dream and the reality of contemporary life. Ginsberg’s tone suggests a yearning for change and a willingness to question authority. The stanza hints at Ginsberg's struggle with his own identity within the American landscape.
The poem begins with an unnamed speaker he has given everything and now he is nothing. He claims he is only worth “two dollars and twentyseven cents” (Line 2), and that he “can’t stand [his] own mind” (Line 3). The speaker is lamenting the turmoils of economic difficulties during the aftermath of the world wars and the ongoing Cold War. The poet Personifies America and uses Apostrophe to directly question the nation as if it is a living answerable man. He accuses the militarism and nuclear proliferation of the country and he tells America to "go fuck yourself with your atom bomb" (5). Ginsberg wonders when America will end the Cold War, and he takes a strong stand against nuclear proliferation.
The speaker declares that he doesn’t wish to continue the discussion while ignoring that he was the one who started it. He declares that he won’t write anything until "I'm in my right mind" (7). But then he mentions that he will never be in his right mind and thus, he continues to converse and write. He presents America as a lost lover, someone he once loved and saw great promise and potential in; it was a potential for salvation. But now he is frustrated and angrily laments. He asks when America will become the land it once promised to be, when will it become "angelic" (8) (Rhetorical Questioning), when will it see the death and destruction that it has caused, when will it understand that its own political oppression is greater than the political oppression of the "Trotskyites" (communists) that it denounces and goes to war with (11)? Ginsberg laments that the libraries of America, representing the potential of free information and free expression, are "full of tears" (12). In line, 13, “America when will you send your eggs to India?” he criticizes America for failing to aid countries such as India.
He denounces the Corporatism of American life symbolized by "the supermarket" and how those with "good looks" are given easy entry into American wealth (15-16).
2nd Stanza
Lines 17-28
“America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.”
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
(…)
I haven’t read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid I’m not sorry.”
In the second stanza, the speaker tries to find a way to make peace with his lost lover the personified America, and says, "You and I who are perfect". He expresses how much he adored the country "You made me want to be a saint. (19)". He mentions that his first calling was to be a labor lawyer and help the workers but he chose to be a poet (saint) instead because of the optimism and promise America offered him. The speaker admits that he cannot "give up my obsession (24)." It is an obsession with the promise of America, with the things that he once believed deeply in (justice, tolerance, freedom, and acceptance). Throughout the stanza, the speaker tries to find a way of reconciliation with his beloved nation America "There must be some other way to settle this argument (20)."
He mentions William S. Burroughs, who, after a run-in with the law, moved to Tangiers, Morocco where he was in a kind of exile from the United States because of legal problems related to the transport of illegal drugs from Mexico. He accuses America's demonization and isolation of its great artists and supports the idea of legalizing marijuana (Beat Generation).
In line 26 (the Plum Blossom are falling), he uses Imagery. In Eastern cultures, plum blossoms are a symbol of peace. The speaker laments America’s essence as a benevolent leader of the world is in decline. He accuses America of violence and deterioration, he has not "read the newspapers for months" and that the reason is because "everyday somebody goes on trial for murder" (27-28).
Stanza 3
Lines 29-40
“America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid I’m not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
(…)
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven’t told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over from Russia.
I’m addressing you.”
In line 29, Ginsberg shows his support for the Wobblies. The Wobblies was a nickname given to The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) that leaned strongly towards Socialist and leftist policies. The Wobblies were harshly criticized by the United States government which largely shut down the group during World War I by prosecuting and politically embarrassing many of its leaders. In line 30, he mentions his childhood. His own mother was a supporter of Socialists. He tells America that as a child he was a communist (30) and is not sorry for that fact.
This stanza is like a confession of Ginsberg. He also mentions his support for legalizing marijuana and says he smokes whenever he gets a chance (31). He mentions he gets drunk in Chinatown and reads the books of Karl Marx. While the speaker declares his Communist affiliations, he stresses that he is not sorry for that, he "won't say the Lord's Prayer (37)." In line 39, he mentions his uncle Max Livergant who came to America from Russia but suffered hardship because of his socialist leanings.
Stanza 4
Lines 41-50
“Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I’m obsessed by Time Magazine.
(...)
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.”
In this stanza, the speaker shifts his perspective from politics towards media. During the 1960s Ginsberg got a lot of media attention due to his political activism and Beat culture. He never shied away from the media but also kept criticizing America's growing reliance on media. He mentions how he is “obsessed with Time Magazine” (Line 40), and here he admits that in his obsession with this magazine, he has realized that he is America.
Time Magazine was the most-read periodical in America. The speaker criticizes America for not just for seeing all events through the lens of the media (represented by Time) but also for letting its "emotional life" be affected by the magazine. He suggests that the country is really being run by the media, which can affect the emotional outcry of citizens who can then strike fear into their elected representatives. Political and social decisions, therefore, are not being made on rational and humanitarian bases. Instead, they are being made by leaders who are more afraid of how the media might portray them for their decisions.
But then, he confesses that he too reads Time Magazine every week. While he accused America of being too reliant on media, he admits that he, who hopes to hold himself to a higher standard of justice and love, cannot escape the way his own perception of events is clouded by media interpretation. Thus, he admits that he is as guilty as America.
Stanza 5
Lines 51-60
“Asia is rising against me.
I haven’t got a chinaman’s chance.
(...)
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I’m a Catholic.”
In this stanza, the speaker turns his perspective to politics again and begins expressing his stream of consciousness. He begins by mentioning the rise of China as a communist power in Asia. The U.S. and U.S.S.R competed to affect the internal politics of China for a long period. The Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the victory of the Communist Party of China. It meant that China will align with Russia which was a setback for US foreign relations in Asia. At the same time, the speaker is stressing his own alignment with Asian culture and religion. Ginsberg, along with other Beat artists (Kerouac and Neal Cassidy) adopted Buddhism and Hinduism).
In the last stanza, the speaker admits that he is America himself but Buddhism stands for peace, love, and transcendence which is against all that America represents (violence, greed, consumerism). He continues to represent himself as the personified country America and says it is "better consider my national resources." He has "two joints of marijuana millions of genitals / an unpublishable private literature..." (54). The speaker criticizes the cultural deterioration of America and how the lifestyle that he lives (drugs, sex, art) is a poor resource for the monumental challenge to his identity and the political identity of the country. He mentions “jetplanes 1400 miles an hour and twentyfive-thousand mental institutions" (55-56) and offers a stark contrast. He questions why a country with such technological advances criminalizes and punishes its insane in such inhumane ways, or, rather why if the country is so advanced, its citizens are going insane? He further notices that despite all the hype about American riches, there are many in "...my prisons...(and) the millions of underprivileged...(57)" He further accuses the discrimination in America. Ginsberg was a jew by birth but he mentions himself as a Catholic because it was believed that a Catholic could never gain success in America and be its president, Catholics suffered religious discrimination in America.
Stanza 6
Lines 61-77
“America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his automobiles more so they’re all different sexes.
(…)
Ewig-Weibliche made me cry I once saw the Yiddish orator Israel Amter plain.
Everybody must have been a spy.
America you don’t really want to go to war.”
The speaker begins striking against America’s economic policies. He accuses America of being in a "silly mood" and that this prevents him from writing a true "holy litany" of the country's faults. He mentions Henry Ford, whose assembly line method of production revolutionized industry in the beginning of the twentieth century and made America the economic superpower. The speaker suggests that maybe he too should begin producing poetry like Henry Ford and should think about profits only. He suggests this is the American way, Everything is done for profit and nothing valuable comes without business sense. However, this creates injustice, discrimination, and partiality, he laments. The speaker then demands justice from America by mentioning the historical case “free Tom Mooney (65).” Tom Mooney was a labor leader in the early twentieth century who had been falsely imprisoned for a San Francisco bombing in 1916. "...save the Spanish Loyalists" (66), the leftist army supported by the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War who fought the Fascist uprising supported by Nazi Germany. The speaker also mentions Sacco & Vanzetti (67) who were two Italian laborers in America who were accused of murder and tried without due process. They were executed, sparking a controversy over the rights of the accused. He continues offering similar examples of injustice being done in American courts. At the end of the stanza, the speaker makes a sarcastic comment and says that everyone must be imprisoned because "Everybody must have been a spy (76)". In the last line of the stanza, the speaker makes a plea, "America you don't really want to go to war," and asks America to correct his ways.
Stanza 7
Lines 78-86
“America its them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad. She wants to take our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader’s Digest. Her wants our auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him make Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers. Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.”
In the penultimate stanza, the speaker mocks America’s paranoia against the socialists and communists, and rants against America's discriminatory attitudes, its unthinking patriotism, and its unjust treatment of minority racial and political groups.
He retorts that the antagonists are Russians and Chinamen, the socialists. He then makes fun of America's paranoia over communist Russia by making ridiculous statements like "Russia wants to eat us alive" "She wants to take our cars from out our garages" and "Her wants to grab Chicago" (80-82). The speaker makes fun of such misdirected fears of common American citizens who hardly know the true political discrimination being supported by their own government.
Stanza 8
Lines 87-93
“America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I’d better get right down to the job.
It’s true I don’t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts factories, I’m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.”
In the last stanza, the speaker gives up his mocking and sarcastic run and returns to serious speech. He already accused America of all the atrocities but now he is in disbelief that America could be so atrocious, discriminatory, and wrong. But then he says “this is the impression I get from looking in the television set (88)”, again accusing the media. He questions if it is correct.
He still hopes to bring the change and is willing to do as much as he could do, "get right down to the job" (90), to bring the better days. He then mentions that he cannot join the Army, nor can work in factories not only because of his political and social beliefs but also because he's "nearsighted and psychopathic anyway (92)." So he is physically and mentally unfit to be in the Army or factories. In the last line, the speaker declares that whatever he could do, he will do with utmost sincerity and devotion, “my queer shoulder to the wheel (93).” Putting one's shoulder to the wheel is an expression of hard work and labor but queer means soft and effeminate. The speaker states that he will prove that even the outcasts, the weak, and the effeminate can affect change.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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