Final Project

I sat and thought at my kitchen table, trying to come up with something for this Whitman project, sitting staring at my coffee wasn’t doing much so I began to ask myself a series of questions regarding Walt Whitman and the class. The professor wants us to show what we have learned from Whtiman, what do we know about Whitman?

What doI know about Whitman?

Well I know he is very visual, he sees everything and takes in everything, he has a way of bringing you into what he is watching, and how he is feeling. So I read song of myself, trying to feel, trying to cling on some words, to perhaps feel what Whitman felt when he wrote them. Then, finally, I stopped at a verse that I particularly liked,

"The city sleeps and the country sleeps, 
The living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time, 
The old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by 
his wife; 
And these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them, 
And such as it is to be of these more or less I am, 
And of these one and all I weave the song of myself."

As I thought more and more about this verse, I realized how much it had to do with me. Since this class has mostly been about us, our own personal relationship with Whitman, it seemed appropriate for me to make a project that entangled myself. Like Walt allows one to see what he sees, this is what I saw with this verse and I did my best to make it as it was in my mind...but what was in my mind was wayy better, but this should do it. (keep in my mind, I'm only one person! haha and I am not the best at technical stuff)

Thanks Walt Whitman, 

I will always look for the Leaves of the Grass

Ginsberg

The way in which Ginsberg lists what the kind of people he sees is relate able to Whtiman. He is bringing attention to these people who might otherwise be overlooked,
"angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient"
Ginsberg includes America in his poetry as Whitman does, 

"who thought they were only mad when Baltimore gleamed in supernatural 
  ecstasy,
who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Oklahoma on the impulse 
  of winter midnight streetlight smalltown rain, 

who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex"


A super market in California,
Just the title reminds me of Whtiman, in it's simplistic, very "American-like" sense, just a super market in California but it holds such significance to the country and what it means to Ginsberg. 
And to point out the obvious that he addresses Whtiman in this poem is very clear that Whitman has influenced him greatly.
It's difficult for me to decide whether Ginsberg is questioning Walt's way of looking at things or if he is glorifying him. 
This part in particular suggests maybe that Ginsberg never knows where Walt is going with his poetry and the questions he poses,

  "Where are we going, Walt Whitman?  The doors close in
an hour.  Which way does your beard point tonight?"

Or maybe be is trying to see the way Whitman saw things, Walt saw America in such a positive light, with hopefulness and ability where as Ginsberg seems a bit put down at the current state of the country. Ginsberg suggests that Walt would be confused and ask a lot of questions, 

 "I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber,
poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery
boys.
          I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the
pork chops?  What price bananas?  Are you my Angel?"