American Lit II: Here it is the second day of class and already we’re behind! My apologies for not getting to “A Supermarket in California” on Monday. I’ve reproduced the poem below. Feel free to comment on any aspect of it you wish. Allow me just to point out that this poem was published 101 years after Walt Whitman’s revolutionary and incredibly influential Leaves of Grass (1855), that it is saturated with Ginsberg’s gay sensibility, and that its ending evokes a sense of American decline. But what say you?A Supermarket in California
By Allen Ginsberg (1956)
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!
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?
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.
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?
Tuesday, January 13
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8 comments:
In my opinion, Ginsberg starts the poem with some humor by referring to the neon fruit supermarket. After the line "never passing the cashier," I feel that the poem takes a darker turn. In class the idea was brought up that Ginsberg was making a commentary on how life in America today isn't what it used to be. Life before his time was simpler, or so the author states. With the line about going home to a silent cottege, it seems to me that even though he is living in a time much more advanced than Whitman's he still feels distant from it and unhappy. This leads me to believe that even if he was alive in the time of " the lost America of love past," he would still be as gloomy as he is today.
I thought the poem started of with some great humor, referring to the "neon fruit supermarket" then the poking the meats while eying the grocery boys. At first I didn't catch it that he was hinting about being gay, but then began to understand with all the sarcastic hints. In class we discussed how the American life today is nothing like it used to be. He seems to be a lonely, and alienated man. I also was thinking if some of the lines meant the same thing today as they did in the 1800's. Such as the line with "checkout" today I would take that as I am checking out in life-death, but is that what the author is saying. That was my main question throughout the poem.
The first time a read through the poem I thought it was a commentary on how he disliked the writings of both Whitman and Garcia Lorca. When I reread the piece a second and third time I finally understood that Ginsberg was commenting on what he liked about both authors and the techniques that each used. I caught the gay theme and I thought he was basically outing Whitman and not himself. When I thought about it I can see that Ginsberg also had a gay indentity and its most obvious in the line "Dreaming of your enumerations." The piece indeed started out very humorous and idealistic when talking about the past. When he talks about the present he is disappointed and becomes misanthropic with the way the world has changed. Talking about the black waters of Lethe further confirms how dissatisfied with life Ginsberg was.
montoyajd
The first time i read this i just thought it was another poem that talked randomly about the supermarket and my first thought was a stalker or something just sitting in a market looking at everyone who was in there. But after discussing it in class i started to understand the sarcasm and the humor and it turns out that i liked this poem alot more than i thought i would. I believe this poem does show that life was simpler way back when and how it gets difficult as time goes on and this poem shows it through the supermarket.
I think that Ginsberg is trying to find some sense of the old America. He wants to know what it was like to be alive in Whitman’s time. He makes a lot of gay puns throughout the poem also, but the humor is lost in the tone of the poem. Ginsberg is asking America where she is going and asking Whitman what he thinks of it all.
The simple fact that there are so many gay references in this poem reveals that the author had either anti-gay thoughts, or he was condsidering his own sexuality. Why else would an author put such vivid descriptions into something? Another thing that can be concluded from this poem is that, since it does seem to be leaning towards a decline of some sort, this decline can be symbolic of the decline of America as a whole, or of the idea of male-female relationships. Since this poem does have so many gay inuendos and references, I would conclude that it is the latter. This poem is written by a man, or in the perspective of a man, that is completely gender confused or sexually confused.
I believe that Ginsberg suffers from spiritual and phyiscal exhaustion while at the same time searching for something to set him right! I think that he dreams of Walt Whitman as a source of inspiration. He is confronting his own sexual desires and his knowledge when he mentions Whitmen's homoerotic impulses.I found the store detective interesting because he was the controlling force of conventional morality, something that many poets have stuggled with in all cultures.
EMT
Ginsberg successfully camouflages and hints at the idea of a declining America. He carefully suggests that America is declining while keeping the audience amused with homosexual puns. One of the clearest points of a theme of a declining America is when Ginsberg says, "stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past". This insists that he thinks that America is lost.
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