What is the meaning of the poem A Supermarket in California?
What is the meaning of the poem A Supermarket in California?
Themes. ‘A Supermarket in California’ by Allen Ginsberg explores the themes of imagination, illusion, and reality. In the last 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.
What does Walt Whitman symbolize in A Supermarket in California?
By the time they should be joining families or the family values, they are in the supermarket shopping for images. So, in the prose poem he is presenting the antithetical vision of America as given by Walt Whitman.
What kind of vision does Ginsberg see for modern society in A Supermarket in California?
metaphoric
As in most of Ginsberg’s poems, the speaker is Ginsberg himself (rather than a poetic persona), and he uses the supermarket as a metaphoric setting for dreaming about the possibilities that America offers and lamenting the country it has instead become.
What figurative language is used throughout A Supermarket in California?
Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects and persons that are different in nature. The speaker has used an extended metaphor of the supermarket to comment upon the changing nature of America.
What is the tone of A Supermarket in California?
Tone of A Supermarket in California- The tone of the poem is set in a theme of the twentieth century America which has stood on its promise of opportunity, freedom, and liberty. The poem is an ironic counterpoint to “a song of myself” “written by Walt Whitman.
Who is Walt Whitman and what did he do?
Walt Whitman, in full Walter Whitman, (born May 31, 1819, West Hills, Long Island, New York, U.S.—died March 26, 1892, Camden, New Jersey), American poet, journalist, and essayist whose verse collection Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, is a landmark in the history of American literature.
What is the tone of a supermarket in California?
What type of poem is a supermarket in California?
“A Supermarket in California” is a prose poem with an irregular format that does not adhere to traditional poetic form including stanza and rhyme scheme. The format is a resemblance of the long-winded aspect of speech.
What is the poem a supermarket in California about?
A Supermarket in California is a poem by American poet Allen Ginsberg first published in Howl and Other Poems in 1956. This poem is a tribute to Walt Whitman in the centennial year of the first edition of Leaves of Grass. This poem criticizes the mainstream of American culture and is considered one of the major poetic works of the Beat Generation.
What is the setting of a supermarket in California?
Analysis. “A Supermarket in California” begins with Ginsberg recounting a particular vision he had one night while living in Berkeley, California. He opens by setting the scene: he is walking down a street, under trees and a full moon, having “thoughts” of Walt Whitman. For Ginsberg, the setting is important here.
When was a supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg written?
A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg: Summary and Analysis. A Supermarket in California is a poem by American poet Allen Ginsberg first published in Howl and Other Poems in 1956. This poem is a tribute to Walt Whitman in the centennial year of the first edition of Leaves of Grass.
What are the allusions in a supermarket in California?
There is an allusion to Whitman’s magnum opus in the use of Homer’s Odyssey in the poem. In the last two lines of the poem, the poet alludes to “Charon” and “Lethe” to bring in the archaic mood at the end. ‘A Supermarket in California’ by Allen Ginsberg explores the themes of imagination, illusion, and reality.
