Gregory Corso's Last Night I Drove A Car

“Last Night I Drove a Car” was written by Gregory Corso after his release from prison. He had been arrested three times and was finally beginning to turn his life around. He went through multiple jobs after getting out of prison the third time and eventually met Ginsberg who influenced his writing style. Many of his poems are about his time in jail or how that affected him and his outlook on life.
The speaker of the poem is Gregory Corso. When he was a child Corso’s mom abandoned him after immigrating to America. When his father found him he put him into foster care, visiting occasionally and abusing Corso when he did show up. Corso spend eleven years in foster care until his father finally took on the responsibility of caring for him simply …show more content…
The poem does not rhyme, however, it does have a certain rhythm to it that makes it flow nicely. The visual pattern of the poem is five short fragments to form one sentence, a blank space, and then three more short fragments to form the second sentence.
The language Corso uses is very simple. There is no fancy or elevated language used. It is very casual and simple with no distinct accent.
“Not knowing how to drive,” is the most important line of the piece since it describes how he is driving yet does not know what he is doing exactly. This represents how people move through life without knowing exactly what they are doing. They do not always have a plan or know where they are heading but they keep going into the unknown, driving without knowing how to drive. There are no set rules for how to live so no one truly knows how to live in a sense since there is no correct answer so everyone just does their best and keeps going.
The poet uses visual imagery of driving a car and knocking down people as he goes. He uses this imagery to represent people moving throughout life and occasionally making mistakes, hurting people, yet they keep driving, moving past it and making