The speaker also admits to being “followed in my imagination by the store detective.”, Where are we going, Walt Whitman? There are also families shopping together—the husbands are in the aisles while the wives are in the avocados and the babies are in the tomatoes. In addition to constructing poetry, Ginsberg’s would prominently influence Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Diana DiPrima. A Supermarket in California Today Allen Ginsberg is regarded as one of the 20th century’s seminal Beat poets. The poet associates the qualities of “avocados” and “tomatoes” with “wives” and “babies” respectively. A Supermarket in California can be seen as part of the counter-culture of the Beat Generation. Each word connects either the poet’s past or Whitman’s life. In this parenthetical, it's almost as if the speaker is stepping out of himself and acknowledging the fact that it's totally weird that he's dream-shoplifting with Walt Whitman in a California supermarket. Follow @genius There is a flurry of activity occurring here, which is a sharp contrast to the beginning of the poem when the speaker seems almost lonely as he walks outside thinking of Whitman and looking up at the full moon. By that point, Ginsberg had moved from New York to San Francisco, where he met and fell in love with his partner until his death, Peter Orlovsky. He refers to old Whitman in the poem. Then comes the fruits with their fruity colors. The doors close in an hour. “A Supermarket in California” is a tribute to Walt Whitman, and a comparison of the America in which they wrote about, one hopeful and the other not. The poet even gives hints to picture Walt Whitman’s image in a specific manner. It is through advertising that we are able to contribute to charity. The mission of the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration is to serve the public through fair, ... Annotation 432.0002.150. The login page will open in a new tab. He asks if they will be walking the streets together, alone and lonely as the rest of the city closes up and goes to sleep. Many consider Whitman to be one of Ginsberg’s inspirations and muses, so it is no surprise that the poet conjures up one of his idols. On a side note, both Ginsberg and Garcia Lorca were also gay, which is perhaps why Ginsberg makes mention of the other poets in this work. Every single person that visits PoemAnalysis.com has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the. Here is an analysis of the poem A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg, one of the leaders of the Beat Generation. Whitman’s character is an instrument used to examine sustained interactions with the author, emphasizing the lack of meaningful contact in daily life (Moore 1). In this case, Ginsberg is speaking to Walt Whitman, who by the time Ginsberg wrote A Supermarket in California, had been dead for many years. In the second half of the second stanza, the speaker admits to following Whitman around the store. In "A supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg, he uses symbolism and literary allusions to convey a man going through a crisis between the modern American consumerism, an individual's detachment with nature; following the ways of his idol Walt Whitman by living a spiritual natural lifestyle and also tell a story about his search for sexual acceptance among the society for … Allen Ginsberg - 1926-1997 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 which we play the inaugural game of: Guess What's Been Happening in CUBA's Life! In addition to being homosexual, Lorca was a Leftist. As stated previously, Ginsberg was a homosexual and spent the majority of his life with his partner, Peter Orlovsky. The name of the fruits mentioned in the poem also acts like symbols of something else. In the second stanza, the speaker claims to have seen Whitman, himself, “poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.” It is no secret that Whitman was homosexual, and Ginsberg makes a note of this in the line. Ginsberg relates with these values and does not like modern consumerist society and wonders how Whitman would deal in this modern society since it is … After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Curiously, Ginsberg uses so many exclamation points here, an uncommon punctuation mark in poetry. The poet uses another personal metaphor in the phrase “Solitary fancy”. In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations! possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier. Allen Ginsberg uses his poetic imagination to invoke the spirits of Walt Whitman and Garcia Lorca in the poem. Ginsberg and his poem actually went on trial in California since the poem was considered indecent, and a judge later ruled that because of Ginsberg’s first amendment rights, the poem was perfectly legal. The speaker then describes the people he encounters there, claiming to have seen Whitman in the aisles, poking at the different assortments of food. It is the poem of someone who loves the United States of America but -for this same reason- feels that his contemporary country is not what could have… Which way does your beard. Will we walk all night through solitary streets? Subscribe to our mailing list to get the latest and greatest poetry updates. His imaginary world is so vibrant that he never loses touch with reality while describing his night at the supermarket. Ginsberg, a Whitman devotee, is no exception. 495.0453 School Cash Register Receipts Program. In this supermarket of the mind, the poet can select images and inspirations much as one would search for items on a grocery list. It is here that the speaker is setting up a division between himself and other Americans. To put forth the idea of America as a "terrestrial paradise"--the locus of the country's dreams of super-abundance--Ginsberg offers a metonym--the 1950s supermarket. The speaker and his muse continue around the store, tasting and handling all sorts of food, yet never come across a single cashier. ... A taxpayer is in the business of providing advertising circulars to supermarkets. In the last stanza, the poet uses the theme of cultural consciousness. Please continue to help us support the fight against dementia. “America” by Claude McKay is a traditional English rhyming sonnet, consisting of three quatrains and a couplet written in iambic pentameter. Analysis of “A Supermarket in California” The poem “A Supermarket in California” gives a synopsis of Ginsberg’s character as both a writer and a human being. Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. The modern poets don’t make things explicit with exaggeration, they provide a picture and leave everything on readers. In the next lines, it does seem that the speaker is shopping for the sights that he sees, not for food. 1722 Words7 Pages Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California" Presented much like a spontaneous journal or diary entry, Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California" is a complex and multifaceted poem that stands as an indictment against American government and culture. It’s also a question of what had changed in American society since the dawn of the first industrial revolution, in the time of Whitman, and the post-Civil War world. In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations! It was also in San Francisco where Ginsberg met other key players in the Beat Generation. A Supermarket in California Lyrics 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. Jamie joined the Poem Analysis team back in November, 2010. Charon is the ferryman who leads the dead across the river Styx and into Hades, the underworld. He jumps out of his illusory world to present the realistic scenes of the supermarket. The supermarket is real. The merchants call or mail in the advertising copy and the taxpayer produces the circular in … The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the/ houses, we’ll both be lonely.”, What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the. Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site. ‘A Supermarket in California’ by Allen Ginsberg explores the themes of imagination, illusion, and reality. Then again, he enters the illusion and connects the reality in the poem. The speaker is tired and hungry, and decides to go “shopping for images” in the Supermarket. In the following essay, Semansky characterizes “A Supermarket in California” as a lament about the materialistic, spiritually vapid culture of mid-twentieth-century America that underscores the inherent conflict embodied in living in an advanced capitalist country and the emotional and psychologically devastating effects of such conflict. As a writer, Ginsberg was known for being particularly outright and radical, speaking out against many of the traditions of American society in … Subscribe to our mailing list and get new poetry analysis updates straight to your inbox. Ginsberg clearly draws a line between him and the people living in suburban America with their “blue automobiles.”. “A Supermarket in California” addresses both sexuality and the death of an authentic America. Annotation 495.0453 (a) IN GENERAL—DEFINITION. There is an air of superiority in ‘A Supermarket in California’, and with its many allusions, Ginsberg assumes his readers will have a certain prior knowledge of subjects such as poetry, world history, and mythology. //, Sorry, we have to make sure you're a human before we can show you this page. What's your thoughts? The free-verse form allows for the free association of ideas. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. Prev Article Next Article. Allen Ginsberg wrote “A Supermarket in California” while living in Berkeley, California in 1955. According to Michael Meyer 1 poetry in fixed verse “can be compared to the regular figures of classical ballet, free verse to the variable movements of modern dance, whose patterns are very flexible but nevertheless follow a choreography”.. !function(t,e,r){var n,s=t.getElementsByTagName(e)[0],i=/^http:/.test(t.location)? A SUPERMARKET IN CALIFORNIA What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the side streets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon. Subversive themes an allusion to Whitman ’ s seminal Beat poets the reality in a of! Players in the Supermarket where Ginsberg met Other key players in the.. On readers to our mailing list and get new poetry analysis updates straight to your whitelist in ad... Exclamation points here, an uncommon punctuation mark in poetry passing the cashier back. 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