Poetry analysis

Please make sure to follow the instructions very closely and that there are no grammatical mistakes.

Please answer the questions below.
– Do not include essay formatting for “student name” etc.
– Ensure that each response is a minimum of 7 lines.
– No outside sources are used to analyze the poem.
– quote lines from the poem and make sure to cite the line number of each quote. Each response should have one quote from the poem.
– Please ensure that there are no grammatical errors and the response is of high quality or I will have to ask for a revision.
– Make sure to include one quotation for each response.
– Let me know if you have any questions about anything.

– The poems can be found here :
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47660/a-supermarket-in-california
https://allpoetry.com/Velocity-Of-Money

Questions:

1. Walt Whitman celebrated American diversity in his poems, especially in Leaves of Grass. Whitman was a major influence on Ginsberg’s writing. What similarities exist between Ginsberg’s and Whitman’s style? Consider, specifically, “A Supermarket in California.”

2. Ginsberg wrote “A Supermarket in California,” in 1955, approximately 100 years after Leaves of Grass. The 1950s represent a time of social conformity and oppression that Ginsberg sought to rebel against. Why does Ginsberg imagine he sees Whitman? What do Ginsberg’s assumptions about Whitman reflect about his own identity?

3. Why would Ginsberg be followed by the “store detective” and “pass the cashier” in is “odyssey in the supermarket” with Whitman?

4. Look up the allusion to Charon and Lethe. Explain the last stanza of the poem.

5. In “Velocity of Money,” the speaker states that he is “delighted” in the first 3

lines. What is the situation and what is the speaker’s tone? Is he really “delighted”?

6. Why would the speaker say that “Usury makes my poetry more valuable” (line 7)? Why would his words be valuable?

7. What kind of world is Ginsberg describing in 1986 and do his words still hold true? Why?