A Supermarket In California Meaning

Here is an assay of the poem A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg, one of the leaders of the Trounce Generation. He is most known for his poem "Howl," which got him in a fleck of hot water for its subversive themes. Ginsberg and his poem really went on trial in California since the poem was considered indecent, and a judge afterwards ruled that because of Ginsberg's commencement amendment rights, the poem was perfectly legal. A Supermarket in California, another favorite amidst Ginsberg fans, was published in his book Howl and Other Poems in 1956. By that point, Ginsberg had moved from New York to San Francisco, where he met and fell in dearest with his partner until his decease, Peter Orlovsky. It was also in San Francisco where Ginsberg met other key players in the Shell Generation.

A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg

Summary

In 'A Supermarket in California', the speaker, possibly Ginsberg, is speaking directly to American poet Walt Whitman, who died in 1892, but who inspired many poets generations later his expiry.

Ginsberg, a Whitman devotee, is no exception. The speaker tells Whitman that he idea of him while walking under the total moon, and the speaker wanders into a supermarket, hungry and tired. The speaker then describes the people he encounters there, claiming to have seen Whitman in the aisles, poking at the different assortments of nutrient. The speaker ends the verse form, wondering if he and Whitman will walk effectually and dream of the past and of "the lost America."

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Structure and Form

There is an air of superiority in 'A Supermarket in California', and with its many allusions, Ginsberg assumes his readers will have a sure prior knowledge of subjects such as poetry, world history, and mythology. Ginsberg separates his verse form into three stanzas, and his lines are unrhymed and written in free verse, and structure does not seem of bully importance to Ginsberg; his stanzas and lines are of varying lengths.

Literary Devices

'A Supermarket in California' by Allen Ginsberg is a poem following the model of prose. The long sentence is not a mark of conventional poesy. Its structure and the literary devices used in the poem marks its modernity. In the first line of the poem, there is an apostrophe. The poet uses lots of enjambment in the poem. In the phrase "hungry fatigue" the poet uses a personal metaphor. Past using the give-and-take "enumerations", the poet refers to the works of Walt Whitman. It is the use of metonymy.

The poet associates the qualities of "avocados" and "tomatoes" with "wives" and "babies" respectively. The literary device used hither is synecdoche. The poet uses another apostrophe to invoke the spirit of Garcia Lorca. The poet uses another personal metaphor in the phrase "Solitary fancy". There is an allusion to Whitman's magnum opus in the employ of Homer's Odyssey in the poem. In the final two lines of the poem, the poet alludes to "Charon" and "Lethe" to bring in the archaic mood at the end.

Themes

'A Supermarket in California' by Allen Ginsberg explores the themes of imagination, illusion, and reality. In the final stanza, the poet uses the theme of cultural consciousness. Allen Ginsberg uses his poetic imagination to invoke the spirits of Walt Whitman and Garcia Lorca in the poem. He talks with them, even walks adjacent in the supermarket. His imaginary world is then vibrant that he never loses affect with reality while describing his dark at the supermarket.

The poet uses the theme of illusion and reality in a manner that the poetic thoughts seem existent to the readers. He jumps out of his illusory globe to present the realistic scenes of the supermarket. And then once more, he enters the illusion and connects the reality in the verse form. Concluding simply not the to the lowest degree, the theme of cultural consciousness is present in these lines, "Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blueish automobiles in driveways, home/ to our silent cottage?"

Symbolism and Imagery

'A Supermarket in California' by Allen Ginsberg is full of symbolism and imagery. The symbolic use of words like "hungry fatigue", "neon fruit supermarket" and "alone fancy" makes this poem interesting. Each give-and-take connects either the poet'south past or Whitman's life. The name of the fruits mentioned in the poem also acts similar symbols of something else. At that place is no explicit reference to any of them but a reader has to be aware while reading the verse form.

Imagism is the essence of modernity. The modern poets don't make things explicit with exaggeration, they provide a picture and leave everything on readers. The poet uses the image of the supermarket to invoke a sense of din and bustle of the modern globe. And so comes the fruits with their fruity colors. The poet even gives hints to picture Walt Whitman'south paradigm in a specific style. He refers to sometime Whitman in the poem. Ginsberg uses light and darkness to create a mysterious mood. The description of the poet walking with Whitman in the third stanza is likewise clear in these lines, "Volition we walk all night through alone streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the/ houses, we'll both be lonely."

Analysis, Stanza by Stanza

Stanza One

Lines 1-iv

What thoughts I have of you this evening, Walt Whitman, for I walked downward the sidestreets nether the

(…)

dreaming of your enumerations!

As stated before, Ginsberg utilizes apostrophe, which is the device used when a poet speaks directly to a person who is not actually there. In this instance, Ginsberg is speaking to Walt Whitman, who by the time Ginsberg wrote A Supermarket in California, had been expressionless for many years. 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.

He writes, "What thoughts I have of y'all this night, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the streets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the total moon." In the next line, the speaker continues to talk to Whitman, telling him that in his "hungry fatigue," he entered a supermarket to shop not for food, but images. In the side by side lines, information technology does seem that the speaker is shopping for the sights that he sees, non for food.

He calls the supermarket a "neon fruit supermarket," which inspires images of bright lights and catchy products in his reader. He says he entered the store "dreaming of your enumerations!" An enumeration is a list of sorts, and Whitman is known for utilizing lists in his poesy. Ginsberg probably too intended to use the word since virtually people create shopping lists before going grocery shopping. Instead of consulting a food list, he is instead of checking the works of his favorite poet.

Lines 5-7

What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of

(…)

doing down past the watermelons?

The second half of the first stanza details images of the objects and people that surround the speaker in the supermarket. There is a flurry of activity occurring hither, which is a precipitous contrast to the beginning of the poem when the speaker seems nigh lonely as he walks outside thinking of Whitman and looking up at the full moon.

Hither, there are peaches and penumbras, which are dark spots in astronomy but could exist the dark spots the speaker sees on the fruit. In that location 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. The speaker also speaks to another expressionless poet, Garcia Lorca, who is a Spanish poet who was executed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Curiously, Ginsberg uses so many exclamation points here, an uncommon punctuation mark in poetry. Possibly he utilizes it to convey the hustle and bustle that is occurring within the grocery shop.

Stanza Two

I saw y'all, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely one-time grubber, poking among the meats in the

(…)

possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.

In the second stanza, the speaker claims to have seen Whitman, himself, "poking amid 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. On a side notation, both Ginsberg and Garcia Lorca were likewise gay, which is maybe why Ginsberg makes mention of the other poets in this work.

In the second half of the 2nd stanza, the speaker admits to following Whitman around the store. The expressionless poet can be heard asking all sorts of questions, the final being "Are you my Affections?" It is nigh as though Whitman is looking for salvation of sorts, someone to save him from this, particularly miserable existence. The speaker and his muse continue around the shop, tasting and handling all sorts of nutrient, nonetheless never come across a single cashier. The speaker also admits to beingness "followed in my imagination by the shop detective."

Stanza Iii

Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard

(…)

disappear on the blackness waters of Lethe?

The third and terminal stanza has an most forlorn feeling to it: the speaker knows it is getting late and the store will exist closing soon. He implores Whitman to tell him where they will exist going next. He admits that he feels "cool" that he'southward been touching the poet'southward book and dreaming of their odyssey in the grocery store. Even though he feels this manner, he does non want the journey to end. He asks if they will exist walking the streets together, alone and lonely as the rest of the urban center closes up and goes to sleep.

It is here that the speaker is setting upward a division between himself and other Americans. He writes, "Volition nosotros stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past bluish automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?" It seems equally though the speaker is dreaming of when America was unlike from what it currently is: it was simpler and less obsessed with possessions. The speaker and Whitman are of that other America, not the current ane, and their isolation and differentness are palpable in this last stanza.

He then asks Whitman, to whom he refers equally a "lonely old backbone-teacher" what America was like earlier "Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking banking concern and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?" Ginsberg references ii different myths in these lines. Charon is the ferryman who leads the dead across the river Styx and into Hades, the underworld. The Lethe, even so, is a dissimilar, more than sinister river. Those who drinkable the water from this river will forget everything.

Historical Groundwork

Every bit stated previously, Ginsberg was a homosexual and spent the majority of his life with his partner, Peter Orlovsky. Ginsberg conjures up two expressionless homosexual poets in his piece of work; perhaps he does this because he feels the three are kindred spirits, and in this poem, Ginsberg seems to be feeling particularly lonely and isolated from the residuum of society. A Supermarket in California can be seen equally role of the counter-culture of the Beat Generation. Ginsberg clearly draws a line between him and the people living in suburban America with their "blue automobiles."