If there's one thing that stands out to me about Ginsberg's poetry if anything else is that his poetry is unnecessarily LONG! I don't understand what message he's trying to get across by his overabundance of repitition in his poems, hence making them almost essay like. Don't get me wrong, Repetition is a great way to emphasize a strong feeling towards something but when you say "When will you take off your clothes? When will you look at yourself through the grave? When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites? America why are your libraries full of tears? America when will you send your eggs to India?" I mean sure, if that was the only portion of severe repition in this poem it'd be great, but it keeps lagging on and on and on. You lose interest half way through.
However, there's a contrast in this poem, while it can be very redundant and boring due to the longevity, at the same time it can be VERY compelling due to the controversy it beholds. Two lines that completely blew me away with their derogitory word choice is "America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb." And what is most compelling about it is it happens so early in the poem; IN THE FIRST STANZA! And this is only one of many controversal lines in the poem! Ginsberg is one sick fellow! lol
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well, the speaker of the poem (not to be confused--of fused, necessarily--with the author)does seem to represent a voice that has been made sick--by what? It might be worth investigating how the dis-eased voice here is a byproduct of Western (specifically American) culture and ideology. In addition to the psychology of the "outsider," which the voice (imagery, rhythms, etc.)of teh poem reveals, there is certainly a lot of social commentary/criticism to mine, here.
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