Everything about America Poem totally explained
"America" is a poem by
Allen Ginsberg, written in
1956. It appears in his collection
Howl and Other Poems.
The poem is in the first person and reads much like a
monologue. It is presented in a somewhat rambling,
stream of consciousness format, consisting mostly of long lines, with little interior punctuation, separated into four nonuniform stanzas.
America is a largely
political work, with much of the poem consisting of various accusations against the
United States,
its government, and its
citizens. Ginsberg uses
sarcasm to accuse America of attempting to divert responsibility for the
Cold War ("America you don't want to go to war/ it's them bad Russians / Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. / And them Russians"), and makes numerous references to both leftist and anarchist political movements and figures (including
Sacco and Vanzetti, the
Scottsboro Boys and the
Wobblies). Ginsberg's dissatisfaction, however, is tinged with optimism and hope, as exemplified by phrases like "When will you end the human war?" (as opposed to "why don't you...?"). The poem's ending is also highly optimistic, a promise to put his "queer shoulder to the wheel," although the original draft ended on a bleaker note: "Dark America! toward whom I close my eyes for prophecy, / and bend my speaking heart! / Betrayed! Betrayed!"
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America is also an intensely personal poem, making references to Ginsberg's use of
marijuana and his
homosexuality, as well as fellow
Beat writer
William S. Burroughs. The longest line in the poem is a sentimental description of a Communist meeting his mother took him to when he was a child, ending abruptly with the ironic pronouncement "Everybody must have been a spy."
Further Information
Get more info on 'America Poem'.
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