America has been a country constantly driven by change and evolution ever since the writing of the Declaration of Independence. This of course may be a good or bad thing, depending on who you ask. Nonetheless, this constant change has mostly been the virtue of America’s success as a nation. These changes are brought by the ebbing culture of our country, and the America that Walt Whitman claims to write for does not resonate with the America that we live in today. Allen Ginsberg calls out Walt on thinking of himself as “The modern man”, and discusses it in his poem “A supermarket in California”. Allen Ginsberg uses the setting and tone of “A Supermarket in California” as a means of mocking the basis of Walt Whitman’s poetic ideals and style.
While describing the supermarket, Allen Ginsberg thoroughly mocks Walt Whitman’s style in the most modern way possible. He sarcastically describes the scenery in a Supermarket, a …show more content…
Walt Whitman tries to insinuate in “A song of myself” that there is complete equality and harmony in America. He does this by mentioning a prostitute and the president himself in consecutive lines, “The prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on her tipsy and pimpled neck; the crowd laugh at her blackguard oaths, the men jeer and wink to each other; The President, holding a cabinet council, is surrounded by the Great Secretaries…” In no world are a prostitute and the president on a level playing field within society, and Allen Ginsberg knows this. He believes that as Whitman spends so much time in nature and trying to understand it, he loses face of the rapidly progressing country around him. While Ginsberg and Walt Whitman would walk home to their “silent cottage”, they’d walk past residential areas and cars filling the streets. This is because the
While describing the supermarket, Allen Ginsberg thoroughly mocks Walt Whitman’s style in the most modern way possible. He sarcastically describes the scenery in a Supermarket, a …show more content…
Walt Whitman tries to insinuate in “A song of myself” that there is complete equality and harmony in America. He does this by mentioning a prostitute and the president himself in consecutive lines, “The prostitute draggles her shawl, her bonnet bobs on her tipsy and pimpled neck; the crowd laugh at her blackguard oaths, the men jeer and wink to each other; The President, holding a cabinet council, is surrounded by the Great Secretaries…” In no world are a prostitute and the president on a level playing field within society, and Allen Ginsberg knows this. He believes that as Whitman spends so much time in nature and trying to understand it, he loses face of the rapidly progressing country around him. While Ginsberg and Walt Whitman would walk home to their “silent cottage”, they’d walk past residential areas and cars filling the streets. This is because the