Exploring the Text

1. In the first section of the poem, we find a variety of images—for example, the “sidestreets” under the “full moon,” the “neon fruit supermarket,” and “[w]hat peaches and what penumbras.” What is the effect of these images? What do they suggest thematically?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - In the first section of the poem, we find a variety of images—for example, the “sidestreets” under the “full moon,” the “neon fruit supermarket,” and “[w]hat peaches and what penumbras.” What is the effect of these images? What do they suggest thematically?
2. How does Allen Ginsberg describe the supermarket? Why is García Lorca there?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - How does Allen Ginsberg describe the supermarket? Why is García Lorca there?
3. What makes the speaker think of Walt Whitman? Why would Whitman ask the questions in line 5? What is the speaker suggesting by these questions?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - What makes the speaker think of Walt Whitman? Why would Whitman ask the questions in line 5? What is the speaker suggesting by these questions?
4. How would you describe Whitman as he is characterized in the poem?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - How would you describe Whitman as he is characterized in the poem?
5. Why would the speaker imagine being followed “by the store detective” (l. 6)?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Why would the speaker imagine being followed “by the store detective” (l. 6)?
6. What does the speaker suggest is “lost” about America? What do the references to Hades suggest about the meaning of the poem? How does Ginsberg’s tone at the end of the poem contribute to that meaning?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - What does the speaker suggest is “lost” about America? What do the references to Hades suggest about the meaning of the poem? How does Ginsberg’s tone at the end of the poem contribute to that meaning?