A Supermarket in California
By Allen Ginsberg
Bio
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He was born in Newark in 1926 and died in 1997.
His early life was troubled because of his mother’s battle with mental illness
and this informed his poems.
He traveled extensively throughout the world and was expelled from many
communist countries (most notably Cuba) for being subversive, these
travels influenced his work.
He won the National Book award for The Fall of America, and was awarded
the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Cultural ministry.
His poem “Howl” was (and is) the source of much controversy over what
some consider to be obscene themes and words. It and other poems like it
was responsible for the repeal of many anti-obscenity laws. It remains his
most famous work.
He was also a musician and appears on The Clash’s album “Combat Rock.”
He wrote “A Supermarket in California” in 1955 while living in Berkley.
A Supermarket in California
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for
I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache
self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went
into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families
shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the
avocados, babies in the tomatoes!--and you, Garcia Lorca, what
were you doing down by the watermelons?
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?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans
following you, and followed in my imagination by the store
detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our
solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen
delicacy, and never passing the cashier.
A Supermarket in California
Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in
an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the
supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The
trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be
lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love
past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher,
what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and
you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat
disappear on the black waters of Lethe?
Allen Ginsberg Reads “A
Supermarket in California”
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YouTube - Allen Ginsberg- A Supermarket
In California
The Speaker
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The speaker is educated, but appears to
be a lonely broken man.
He is searching for meaning and
something beautiful, something natural in
modern America.
The Subject
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The poem deals with the loss of the old
America, the America that could have
inspired Whitman.
We see through the speaker the alienation
and homogenization of modern America,
and the speaker’s sadness about what he
can never experience due to the
unfortunate timing of his birth.
Images
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The first images we see are inside the
supermarket, where the speaker remarks on the
produce and the “Aisles full of husbands! Wives
in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!”
He compares the shopping families to the
produce, because to him they are no different—
no important story, no distinction deeper than
age or sex.
Images cont.
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Garcia Lorca is inserted as a contrast to
the shoppers. He was a Spanish poet in
the thirties whose works were censored by
the fascist government of Franco after his
death. He is a symbol of repressed art in
America, and the speaker expresses
surprise to see him out in the open and in
a soulless supermarket.
Images cont.
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Walt Whitman is a symbol of the old America, the
America that the speaker wants to live in. He is
described as an old fool who demands things no one
asks or cares about anymore “Who killed the pork
chops?” trying to find the story behind what he is buying
although there no longer is any story behind anything in
the supermarket.
He is portrayed this way because according to the
speaker a man like Whitman would not be able to
remain sane in modern society, he would be reduced to
a doddering old fool who wanders the supermarket at
night.
Images cont.
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The blue automobiles further the sense of
conformity in America, the way it is stated
implies that all of the cars are blue and
the same.
The entire last stanza uses mythological
characters and settings to add a sense of
grandeur to the death of Whitman.
Organization
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Five stanzas
Free verse
Mostly long sentences broken up by
commas with a few breaks of short
exclamations, or questions.
Organization
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I divided it into four sections:
First stanza (lines 1-9), the speaker describes the supermarket and
its patrons.
Second stanza (lines 10-20) The speaker “meets” Walt Whitman and
follows him through his dazed supermarket journey.
Questioning (lines 21-29) The speaker questions “Whitman” about
the literal plan for their night, and indirectly the reader “Where are
we going, Walt Whitman?” This section is meant to question the
course of modern America .
The Death of Walt Whitman (lines 30-34) this brings the central
question of the poem out “What America did you have,” it questions
both the existence of the America both the speaker and Whitman
yearn for, and our own modern America; the speaker is asking the
reader directly about what America they have.
Diction and Syntax
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The use of long sentences gives the poem the feel of an older work,
possibly from the time of Walt Whitman. This impression is reinforced by
the elevated language used (enumerations, penumbras, etc.)
The poem is told in the past tense because the speaker is reflecting upon
his experience, which he realizes is absurd when he finds the real Whitman
represented by the book. This is done to highlight the questions which are
in the present “Where are we going,” “Will we stroll.” The questions are in
the present because the speaker means for them to transcend the specific
circumstances of the poem and become questions the reader is supposed to
ask himself.
The other instance that the present is used is in the description of the
supermarket. It is used there because those shoppers and their actions are
interchangeable with all other shoppers at all times.
The observations at the supermarket are also given exclamation points to
convey the feeling that everything in modern America is loud, full of false
excitment, and right NOW!
Conclusion
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“A Supermarket in California” is a poem that is meant to
question the notions that modernization is better and
that all progress is good progress. It bemoans the
prevailing ideas of fast, cheap, mass produced. It yearns
for a simpler time, a time that could produce men like
Walt Whitman the “old courage-teacher” who not only
was a symbol of old America, but also is a symbol of
non-conformism and protest. The America seen by the
poem is one devoid of art and of true human expression.
It encourages us to question, to work for change, and to
appreciate the few remaining vestiges of the “lost
America of love”
A Supermarket in California
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for
I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache
self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went
into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families
shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the
avocados, babies in the tomatoes!--and you, Garcia Lorca, what
were you doing down by the watermelons?
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?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans
following you, and followed in my imagination by the store
detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our
solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen
delicacy, and never passing the cashier.
A Supermarket in California
Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in
an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the
supermarket and feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The
trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be
lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love
past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher,
what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and
you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat
disappear on the black waters of Lethe?