Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Allen Ginsberg was known for his confessional poems in free verse with a Jazz & blues influence. He often explored the themes of identity, mortality, love, nature, and politics in his poems. He was deeply influenced by English early Romantic poet William Blake and the other poet he revered and admired was Walt Whitman.
‘A Supermarket in California’ is a prose poem by Ginsberg that he wrote as a tribute to Whitman in the centennial year of the first edition of Leaves of Grass. The poem was published in Howl and Other Poems in 1956.
A Prose Poem is a literary work that combines elements of poetry and prose. It doesn't follow traditional poetry structures, such as rhyme or meter, but instead uses prose's fluidity to explore poetic themes and imagery. Some common techniques used in prose poems are stream-of-consciousness writing style, fragmented narrative, dreamlike sequences, metaphors, symbolism, imagery, and other figures of speech. In ‘A Supermarket in California’, Ginsberg imagines finding Federico García Lorca and Walt Whitman shopping.
Structure of A Supermarket in California:
Being a prose poem, there is no definite meter or rhyme. The lines are written in free verse with allusion, symbolism, imagery, apostrophe, enjambment, metonymy, alliteration, consonance, and assonance. The poem is divided into three stanzas, and each is longer than the last. The stanzas and lines are of varying lengths. The poet assumes that the reader is familiar with Greek mythology, history, and poetry. The allusion to “Charon” and “Lethe” at the end of the poem brings the archaic mood. In Greek mythology, Charon was the ferryman who carried the dead into the underworld, across the river Styx. The River Lethe was a different river in the underworld, which caused those who drank its waters to experience complete forgetfulness. The shades of the dead were required to drink the waters of the Lethe to forget their earthly life.
Themes of A Supermarket in California:
The poem is an ode to Ginsberg’s poetic hero and major influence, Walt Whitman. Ginsberg also pays homage to Federico Garcia Lorca, who was an influential Spanish poet in the early 20th century. Lorca was killed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War by the right-wing Spanish Nationalists for his own leftist political views. Thus, one of the themes of the poem is Ginsberg’s political leanings to the left. The poet creates a dream-like sequence in the poem and imagines invoking the spirits of Walt Whitman and Garcia Lorca. He talks with them and walks side-by-side while remaining so vibrantly alive in his dream that he never loses touch with reality while describing his night at the supermarket. The poet criticizes the consumerism and capitalism sprawling in postwar America and imagines Walt Whitman mourning the “lost America of love.” Walt Whitman stood for a kind of celebration of the common man, the nobility of labor, and people’s individuality. However, modern America appears just the opposite, it is marred with consumerist culture, suffering the idea of the American Dream that equates money and happiness. The poem is set in California, the home of Hollywood and the rich and famous, a place where lives are ostensibly filled with artificial sunshine and joy, where there is no place for the natural beauty of life. The poet also criticizes the conformity that society forces on individuals. Society tells people that buying things will bring them happiness, and then teaches people to want to buy all the same things—the same "blue automobiles" and "fancy" artichokes. The poet says that in such a consumerist environment, individuals too become products. That's why there are "Aisles full of husbands." The poet suggests that husbands, "Wives," and "babies" are more things to be desired to project the image of a perfect American life. Homoeroticism or homosexuality is also a significant theme of the poem. The poet, his muse Walt Whitman, and Federico Garcia Lorca, to whom he pays homage, all were believed to be homosexuals.
Summary of A Supermarket in California:
Stanza 1 Lines 1-2
“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!”
The poem begins with an Apostrophe, as the speaker directly addresses Walt Whitman, a long-dead poet, and greets him as if he is standing aside. The poet says that he was thinking of Walt Whitman as he walked down the street. He was suffering a mild headache and was a bit nervous, and self-conscious, and the only thing in his mind was Walt Whitman who was standing now in front of him in a supermarket in California. The poet suggests that he is lost in the glamorous supermarket of California and feeling dizzy with a headache, and he seeks guidance from Walt Whitman. Whitman lived in the 1800’s while Ginsberg was in the 20th century. Thus, it is improbable that Whitman could have given any direction to Ginsberg who was apparently more modern. The poet alludes to Dante’s Inferno in which the ancient Roman poet Virgil appears to guide him. Same way, Whitman appears to guide Ginsberg. The speaker says that he felt hungry and tired, and entered the supermarket to shop some images. He entered the ‘neon fruit supermarket’ thinking of ‘your’ or Whitman’s enumeration. The hungry and tired speaker didn’t seek food or fruits but images. Which suggests that he used a metaphor to express his spiritual and intellectual longing.
Enumeration means a list, here enumeration suggests Whitman’s works, poetry. The poet creates imagery of bright lights and catchy products in the reader’s mind while using metonymy to contrast the supermarket with the simplicity of Leaves of Grass. The poet is seeking guidance from Whitman to quench his spiritual and intellectual hunger that can’t be fulfilled by the sparkling fruits stashed in the ‘neon fruit supermarket.’ The speaker hoped the supermarket would hold a glimpse of the world Whitman spoke of in his poetry.
Line 3
“What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?”
In the second part of the first stanza, the poet brings contrast. While he was lonely as he walked down the street, the supermarket was full of activities. He sees peaches, with some dark spots or shrouds (penumbras). The speaker suggests that behind all these flashlights, there are dark secrets, while the glamour of the supermarket hides the dark reality. There are so many families around the supermarket. The husbands are in the aisles while the wives are in the avocados and the babies are in the tomatoes. While it seems they are all buying things, the poet also alludes that they are products too, husbands can be brought in aisles, while wives are available in the avocados and the children can be brought with the tomatoes. The poet alludes to the darkness of industrialized society that demanded the illusion of the perfect nuclear family while he says that this glorious show has its own penumbras, the families are dysfunctional.
Then the speaker uses an apostrophe again and addresses Garcia Lorca, the Spanish poet who was executed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
Stanza 2 Lines 4-7
“I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you, and followed in my imagination by the store detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.”
The speaker begins with Apostrophe again and addresses Whitman, saying that he saw Whitman testing the meatballs kept in the refrigerator of the supermarket. “poking among the meats” is also a double entendre, a crude term for male/anal intercourse.
He addresses Whitman as a ‘childless, lonely old grubber’ and mentions he saw him ‘eyeing the grocery boys.’ Walt Whitman is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual. Garcia Lorca and Ginsberg too were homosexuals. Thus, the poet brings the theme of sexual freedom in this stanza. The poet says that he eavesdropped Walt Whitman who was asking questions to the grocery boys, ‘Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?” The speaker creates a camaraderie with Whitman, suggesting that he noticed him flirting with young grocery boys at the supermarket.
Whitman’s question ‘Are you my Angel,?’ also suggests that he might be seeking salvation from this miserable place, the supermarket, a consumerist society detached from nature and a humanity that lost its individuality. In Whitman’s age, it was common for a buyer to know how the meat he was buying was procured, whether was it safe, or not. However, Whitman could not get an answer to that question in a supermarket. Whitman and the speaker strode down the open corridor of the supermarket, tasting various delicacies without paying or facing the cashier. The speaker alludes to the symbol of the natural, without having to pay for its pleasures. This ‘natural’ is directly opposite to the consumerism of the supermarket which demands profit and payment.
Stanza 3 Lines 8-12
“Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?”
The third stanza again begins with an apostrophe and it brings a tone of gloom. The speaker questions Whitman ‘Where are we going,?’ and reminds him that the supermarket is about to close. The speaker admits that the vision he is having cannot last. Whitman’s glorification of the natural world cannot stand in the face of economic modernity where everything is for sale and everything has a price. The consumerism of the real world is about grasping and devouring the freedom and naturalness of his dream. The speaker confesses that finding a book of Whitman in the supermarket made him dream of his odyssey with Whitman, but now it feels absurd. He says that seeking the aesthetic beauty of nature in a supermarket is absurd, supermarkets are known for false glamour, artificial beauty, and hiding dark secrets. He further contemplates where he can go with Whitman to find someplace where Whitman’s pure vision of the natural society and the natural man can be realized, but finds that there is no such place in modern America which used to be the home of Whitman. They may continue to search for such a natural place of their dream in the solitary streets but they will find nothing but loneliness.
Ginsberg ends the poem with an allusion to the Greek mythology. He asks Whitman what America he imagined when Charon was taking his ferry through the river Styx to Hades, but America was leading towards River Lethe. Whitman got out on a smoking bank of the river Lethe and watched America going down. In Greek mythology, River Lethe would cause complete forgetfulness for those who drank from its waters. The modern American society suffers the same fate. Instead of reaching the natural heaven of Hades, the American society drank the water of Lethe and forgot its past and what is natural. The peach and the ‘pork-chops’ in the supermarket have no relation for those that buy it to the natural world from which it came. Its past has been forgotten. This is the state of the world that capitalism and modernity have brought. And thus, Whitman is lonely, a forgotten hero, and so is the speaker.
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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