Allen Ginsberg

I feel that those two poems have some kind of connection between them so I decided to write about both of them....


"America"
In this poem "America" Ginsberg is speaking in a monologue as if he is directly addressing America at some points in the poem I felt that it was an in-your-face kind of attitude. This poem seems to make make the author come off as bias and matter of factual. I felt like it was meant to be a long rant of a joke told by a drunk person who didn't really mean to say it. However I felt that Ginsberg has a personal strong feelings included in the poem. It was long and mostly dealt with American history, a lot of it political including the Cold War

"America you don't want to go to war/ it's them bad Russians/

Them Russians them Russians and them China men./

And them Russians"

It's like he was using strong sarcasm to take low blows at America but at the same time he had some hope by asking:

"When will you end the human war?"

I feel like he has a love hate relationship with America he loves and has optimism for the country. It's almost as if he bares some guilt for the country itself. There is one point in the poem where he shares a long personal memory

"America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they 

sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party
was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother
Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy."

a recollection of the times when his memory wasn't jaded

It seems as if he was pointing out his own personal flaws or what would be considered a flaw to America and shining a mirror to America to see there own flaws. I felt it was written in a rebellious and humorous state of mind. Overall I have a love hate relationship with Ginsberg poetry I could never figure out quite why but I respect this poem especially for the time it was written in, his boldness and I always love a poet who doesn't follow standards.


"Homework"
This poem to me was ironic in the fact that it is entitled "Homework" and it is about doing laundry. I felt that this was significant in the sense of one of two things: doing your homework to find out information than airing out the dirty laundry. OR if you did your homework you would do your laundry. Of course the poem is speaking of a environmental issues. The point here I feel is that not one place or person plays a significant role in the damage being done. Together as a whole with small contribution to the problem makes it a collective problem.
Allen Ginsberg seems to address serious topic in a light hearted humorous way, perhaps it is true that we must laugh to keep ourselves from crying. When I read this poem for some reason I felt a certain level of distain as if the tone was in complete disgust. I felt this poem was more straight to the point unlike the other poem "America" which included a lot of history, details and personal feelings. This poem for me was more focused or course shorter but for me the discontent was more in the tone of the poem than in the words.