Howl and Other Poems: starting with "A Supermarket in California, America, and In the Baggage Room at Greyhound."

              The poem, “A Supermarket in California” reminds me of a man that misses his best friend. In this case, the author’s best friend is Walt Whitman. In the beginning of the poem, Ginsberg describes the grocery scene as a huge, friendly family affair, “Aisles full of husbandsa” and “whole families shopping at night.” The tone of the poem completely changes with the introduction of the new character: Walt Whitman. In the middle of the poem, instead of hearing positive, careless and surprised thoughts, it is filled with frustration and intimidating confusion. I find this part of the poem somewhat confusing because, surely Whitman would have seen the modified grocery and the grocery pricings living in the state area. You can see the free and careless behavior of the author towards the end of the poem.  Towards the ending, the author asks “We will walk all night through solitary streets.” I believe the author wrote that to fully describe how the two men feel about their place in the world. The two boys feel alone in lost America.The last part of the poem is different and kind of opposite. “Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love.  I believe this poem is telling America how we are changing drastically…just like the prices in a grocery store.

            The poem “America” by Ginsberg gives a sarcastic, yet extremely tone to the audience. It is as if the author is having a conversation with America, and America is actually responding to Ginsberg. In the poem, Ginsberg describes the war, money, people, heroes, drugs, different countries, and the past historic events that America has been involved in. However, although the topics are so bizarre and spread apart, Ginsberg organizes the flow and content of the poem in the most perfect plot.  Ginsberg always begins with a question or rhetoric or unbelievable question at the beginning of each stanza. I believe the funny part of this poem is when Ginsberg calls himself “America.” It is as if Ginsberg is in a psychological mind war with himself, talking back and forth to himself. At first Ginsberg becomes enormously angry, however, he adjusts what he says and begins to the next subject. I would say that Ginsberg might of have a mild case of ADHD of some sort.

            The poem “In the Baggage Room at Greyhound,” Ginsberg describes a scene in the baggage room. Instead of describing the amounts of luggage or non living objects of the room, he describes everything else. Each indention begins with “nor.” To me, with the use of “nor” he uses this to make himself feel better about himself. Because he is stranded in the room, Ginsberg compares his situation with the others in the room. It seems like he’s in a better situation than the “Indian dead with fright talking to a huge cop by the coke machine.” Then, Ginsberg describes a man named “Spade.” The next part of the poem, he describes himself sitting on top of racks and describes all of the packages next to him. However, when Ginsberg describes the packages, he personifies the packages, giving them a nationality and origin. It is as if, these packages are his friends on the greyhound. The last part of the poem, he finally arrives to his destination with sarcastic injuries.