America

“America” is, essentially, a protest poem. Ginsberg lays his soul out on the page, criticizing everything from capitalism to laws against marijuana. Ginsberg does this in his typical spontaneous style, where specific images, ideas, and critiques supersede any sort of narrative structure. This poem is particularly fragmented as almost every line is end-stopped and contains one complete thought. Additionally, the poem is unique for its shifts in perspective and the way Ginsberg synthesizes his own and America’s points of view.

Ginsberg establishes the tone of the poem early, claiming right away that he feels unwell as a result of the world he must exist in. America has left him poor and not feeling good. It has stifled his ability to write and to think, and instead of spending his time working on his art, he is too busy obsessing over the faults of his country while simultaneously finding himself sucked into the traps of America’s culture and values. He’s both “sick of [America’s] insane demands” (Line 14) and “obsessed by Time Magazine” (Line 40), and this leads to his realization that he is America (Line 45).