Assignment 2/14/07

How does Ginsberg's speaker see himself in relation to Whitman and Whitman's poetry?

Part 1: My opinion

Personally, I am not usually a fan of Walt Whitman. I found "I Hear America Singing" boring. I even started to skip lines in order to finish the poem more quickly because I felt it was repetative. If I had to pick my favorite out of the three Whitman poems assigned I would choose "Cavalry Crossing a Ford". I enjoyed the imagery he used to describe the soldiers and their environment. In regards to Ginsberg's poem, I found it to be whitty and full of satire. It was much more interesting to read because Ginsberg's sense of humor kept my attention.

Part 2: Response

Ginsberg's character exudes an aire of confidence that differs greatly from the characters in Whitman's poems. Ginsberg's character seems to be unsure of himself and his actions. The character also mentions being lonely a few times. However, I think that most of the descriptions used by the character are meant to mock Whitman. For example, he refers to Whitman as a "lonely old grubber" and "lonely old courage-teacher". The character initially describes himself as "self-conscious", yet the way he mocks Whitman makes him sound confident in his despair.
Whitman's characters, on the other hand, seem confident and happy. In the poem "I Hear America Singing", for example, the characters each sing "strong melodious songs". Each person has their own occupation which they are proud of and proclaim through "song". In the poem "Cavalry Crossing a Ford", the characters are the soldiers. Whitman uses imagery which promotes an idea of tired diligence. For example, Whitman describes the soldiers as, "brown-faced men- each group, each person, a picture- the negligent rest on the saddles". This imagery gives the reader a sense that their faces have been worn by the sun's rays. They are picturesqe, yet weary from travel. The characters described by Whitman seem to come alive within the poems. In the first poem, "I Hear America Singing", the characters are confident and each has their own story to tell. In "Calvary Crossing a Ford", the characters come together as a cohesive group which pushes forward as one group, yet containing many individuals. In Ginsberg's poems, on the other hand, his character is unsure and depressed. He pokes fun at a target in a way which seems to be to take pain from his own suffering. He claims to be lonely and "self-conscious". This is a major contrast to that of Whitman's poems. It is ironic that Ginsberg's character which is not confident mocks Whitman and his poems which all carry a confident message.