America

I'm going to have to agree with Lilly here.  Listening to the poem on audio made it a completely different piece than reading it on the page.  I think this poem is one of those that really needs to be read aloud in order to appreciate.  Reading this is like trying to make sense of someone else's thought process so hearing him read it gives it life.  I know that seeing it on the page gives it a visible structure, but hearing it, the structure and rhythm really jumps out at you.  I also found it a lot funnier when read aloud then when reading it.  I liked being able to laugh at my own country. Nicely done Ginsberg.

Ginsberg's America

I really liked this poem, especially with Ginsberg's reading of it. He made it sound like someone's actual conversation with America (though maybe a disjointed or one-sided conversation). The bit around lines 80-90 was especially good to hear out loud because it gets across him making fun of the stereotypes against "them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians." Throughout, there seems to be a tone of childishness and silliness ("Everybody's serious but me") even though Ginsberg insists, "America this is quite serious." He boasts about things he's done wrong, such as smoking marijuana, not saying the Lord's Prayer, and for having been to Communist Cell meetings as a kid and not being sorry. This kind of attitude is one a young person might have. Also, the way he repeatedly "talks back" to this America in the first part of the poem makes him seem like an unruly teenager: "I don't feel good don't bother me. / I won't write my poem till I'm in the right mind." "I'm sick of your insane demands." Silliness comes out in the way Ginsberg treats a serious subject, national resources: "My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles an hour and twentyfive-thousand mental institutions." Perhaps the fact that "It occurs to me that I am America" causes him to say, "America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?" Here Ginsberg IS America, but is sometimes still addressing it and having discussions with it as if it were a separate person.

America

To me this poem seemed like a thought process in its rawest form and in some ways resembled ranting. These are private thoughts that are not normal said by Americans , usually filtered out by convention. He explains what America is doing its self and its reputation. The country is not longer respected because of its overwhelming ignorance concerning itself. The wrongs and values of America taunt him to the point that he cannot get the thoughts out of his head causing him to feel resentment towards himself; "I can't stand my own mind." He poses the question, "America when will we end the human war?" I think he uses the word "human" to emphasize that we are all humans, and all the same. War between us is self deprecating. It seems like he is having difficulty explaining his point, almost struggling because he is so distracted and angered by the process of arriving at it. He revolts against America in his own ways. He doesn't read newspapers, was a communist, smokes weed, gets drunk and by implication tries to get laid. He addresses the media and how it is controlling peoples lives. Then he had a realization. I think that this could have been that he sees that he is part of the some of the problems with America that he has been speaking about. He is America, he is speaking to America and so he is speaking to himself. The media is brought up again when speaking of America's unreasonable fear of all Russians. In the last few lines of the poem, the author says "I'd better get right down to the job." I think this, and some other lines, suggest that Ginsberg's America is about how he needs to do something, like write a poem, that will expose America to itself.

I really like Ginsberg’s poem a lot. I especially liked listening to the audio file because this helped keep the poem clear. The style of the poem is somewhat confusing because I think the author wants us to become part of his stream of consciousness. This poem personifies America as a living being, which is a commentary on the mass culture America has produced due to the “newspapers” and “Time magazine.” After all, America becomes addicted to these.
“I'm addressing you. Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine? I'm obsessed by Time Magazine. I read it every week. Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore. I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library. It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me. It occurs to me that I am America. I am talking to myself again.”
The author distances himself from this mainstream of consumers of “Time Magazine” as he says, “Everybody’s serious but me.” The author is unlike those who read the paper ‘every week” in the “basement” of libraries. The author portrays these consumers reading the newspapers in “basements” because it creates a dark tone as if this is not a natural way to live huddle sin “basements” as a slave to the media.

Stanza 11

I liked this stanza, where Whitman ponders which pictures he shall hang on the walls "to adorn the burial-house of him i love..." Whitman then describes various scenes that he believes sum up life in Lincoln's former country. He focuses on spring as a symbol for rebirth and his words seem a reassurance against both the loss of a hero and his own mortality. He mentions the "Gorgeous, indolent, sinking sun," which seems to serve as a symbol for the passage of time and as the engine of growth that accelerates the world forward. He mentions "herbage" and "leaves," describing them as "green," "fresh," and "sweet." this seems in contrast to the grief he expresses, which might suggest the leaves of fall,as they die and fall with flashes of color. He also mentions "the breast of the river," seemingly suggesting again the passage of time and the continuation of life. "Breast" suggests motherhood, or at the very least humanity, while the river implies a carrying on. Whitman suggests that humanity will still flow forward. He finally mentions humans at the end of the stanza: "And the city...with dwellings so dense...and all the scenes of life, and the workshops and the workmen homeward returning." These images of the city life are perhaps an homage to America, the nation that Lincoln saved, thus allowing for the cities to grow dense.

Section 8

In the 8th section, Whitman addresses the moon ("O western orb sailing the heaven"), who once seemed to know something woeful was to come. Whitman does not know what it was until now, after Lincoln's death. The moon "was lost in the netherward black of the night," perhaps in the way that Lincoln himself is now gone. Whitman conveys that the moon might have had something to tell him, but did not know what it was until the event revealed itself. Here, the moon could be some all-knowing being that is unable to convey its knowledge, or Lincoln himself in his last month. This section of the poem also serves to demonstrate how even a distant part of the natural world mourns for this president, "you sad orb."

Lilacs

"Lilac" is used over 10 times in this poem. The condition or nature of the lilac is important in the understanding of the poem.

1st Reference: "when lilacs in the dooryard bloom'd...I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring." - Here Whitman is saying that the sight of the lilacs and the spring in general is no longer a time of rebirth and happiness but of morning because it marks the time that Abraham Lincoln was assasinated, which is the main basis of the poem.

2nd Reference: "lilac blooming perennial and dropping star in the west, and thought of him I love." Again, the "blooming" of the lilac is mentioned, which would normally signify a hope or rebirth but to Whitman it represents sorrow and continued mourning for the death of this national figure and how the blooming of the lilacs will never again bring him the joy that it once did.

3rd Reference: " Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green."
- Whitman is reflecting on how he percieved the lilacs in his past, before the death of Lincoln. The heart shaped leaves represent the love people had for lincoln (source is at the bottom). This was his perspective when he saw the lilacs as a sense of love, hope and nature.

- He interupts to say that he is breaking the lilac as his dear president was destroyed.

4th Reference: "I give you my sprig of lilac" - Here Whitman is saying that the destroyed flower is being given to Lincoln on his coffin as a symbol or respect. I believe here lies the depth of this poem, that the lilac he once adored, is no longer of the same meaning to him, but upon much mourning and reflection he puts the lilac in which he destroyed ontop of Lincolns coffin as a token of his respect, honor and loyalty.

"The act of placing flowers in a coffin is a symbolic gesture of honor and respect. Although the flower is dead, a new lilac will be reborn in the spring. Similarly, when spring returns, Lincoln's memory will be revived through this elegy. Whitman's attempt to deal with death is a turning point in the poem. " (source below)

5th Reference: "now the lilac that blooms the first" - In this passage Whitman is signaling to the reader that he is no longer interested in destroying the lilac but more important to him is the rebirth of the lilac and through his elergy the rebirth of the spirit of Lincoln. This also proves that through the great depths of pain that he is experiencing, he is learning how to cope with the death as the elergy serves as his medication."

Last Reference: "I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves, I leve thee there in the dooryard, blooming, returning with spring." Here the tone completely changes from complete and utter grief to a glimpse of hope. He recognizes that he will always feel the loss of his hero but he is also ready to move on.

I originally did not understand this poem, and then I read the following article which I derived all my ideas from in this post, that helped me understand the poem through the subject of the lilac.

Link: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/470522/when_lilacs_last_in_the_dooryard_bloomd.html?page=2&cat=2 By Cameron Pierce, published Dec 07, 2007