Another Post on America

After reading the poem I went back and marked off all the times that the words “you” or “I” appeared and I found that it dominates most of the poem. This technique illustrates Ginsberg’s “me against you” relationship with his country that he maintains throughout most of the poem. There is a small section of the poem where he tries to ease up on this view after he declares “I am America”, but even this only lasts until line 64 when he can no longer continue this point of view.
Along with viewing the poem as a stream of thought I also saw it as a sort of confessional. He seems to be using the image/idea of America as a way to look back on himself, and although he does condemn America for its various infringements he also seems to be looking poorly upon himself as well.