Li Bo And Allen Ginsberg's 'South Of The Walls We Fought'

Politics and Poetry Ever since the creation of a written language, and the idea of creative writing, poets and authors alike have been using their art to express a message about the politics of their time. There are many writers who have political undertones to their art, two poets who excel in their political statements are: Li Bo and Allen Ginsberg. From the collection of Li Bo’s poems, the poem that stands out as being related to politics is his poem “South of the Walls We Fought” in this poem he has a negative and exasperated view of his empires war. While Allen Ginsberg in his poem “America” seems frustrated about what he views as the injustices of the American government, particularly towards other countries and minorities. Both of these …show more content…
In Li Bo’s poem “South of the Walls We Fought” he details what he is experiencing, from a soldiers point of view, during a war that his empire is going through. As a result of the poem being from a soldiers point of view Li Bo seems to be utterly exasperated with the war and is ready for the day to come were they are no longer at war; this exasperation is clear in the lines, “Beacon fires blaze without ceasing, the marching and battle never end,” (Bo, 1024). This shows Bo’s weariness with the constant fighting since during this point in history beacon fires were the government’s way of alerting its soldiers that there was an attack going on, and if a beacon was lit without stopping during a war that meant that the soldiers were likely rarely given a chance to …show more content…
Allen Ginsberg is well known for his rant-like style of poetry, and often, such as in “America,” his topic for the poem is related to politics. Allen Ginsberg had an opposing viewpoint of several political events of his time; one of his strongest lines is about the dropping of the atom bomb, “America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb,” (Ginsberg). While certainly a very explicit opposition to the atom bomb, Ginsberg also shares a common opinion in the concern that many Americans had at the time over the potential of an atom bomb being dropped. Ginsberg certainly does not shy away from making his opinion of this issue public with his, albeit very colorful, straightforward language in this quote which clearly shows his opposition of the American government on this matter. Ginsberg also points out the injustice of American society by saying, “America when will you send your eggs to India?” (Ginsberg). While this is a simple rhetorical question, there are many political undertones hiding inside this question; first there is a sense of America why are we being selfish with the materials which are abundant the country when there are people in other countries who really need those materials, it also shows our lack of willingness to bargain with undeveloped countries unless there is some