I wonder how many of the "who" Ginsberg knew personally. Even though this poem is an ode to Carl and the best minds of his generation some of these descriptions are really vivid and specific. I also wonder if any of these sections are about himself.

The repetition of "who" makes the beat really quick and forceful. The breaks away from sections that start with "who" are kind of like a digestible break.

Ginsberg uses really unique and intense imagery. What does angelheaded even mean? It's pretty much a neologism that has multiple interpretations/images depending on the reader.

Across these poems there is a heavy presence in nature. It's interesting to think about how nature and identity are intertwined.

Again there is a sense of belonging to America even if you're actually not really a part of it.

Another interesting commonality is the night. There's mystery that comes with the night and darkness. It can obscure, and not (from moonlight) simultaneously.

Again with the importance of singing, of being loud and not silenced.

This is another interesting juxtaposition because in this case being contained by yourself is freeing, because it is containing yourself with yourself. But even though you are contained you are not still, you're growing.

This reminds me of the repetition and importance of rivers for life/living from Hughes, especially since songs have heavy importance for identity and culture.

The juxtaposition here for a dying dream is dramatic. Maybe it's meant to encompass all the different types of people, and their dreams that can die. Or maybe the ignorance is meant to be a refusal to letting dreams die.

I liked this line a lot. There's a difference between singing America, and being what makes up America vs being American. Even though there isn't really a difference there is.

The use of anaphora for the word rivers is really interesting. It reminds me of the class discussion of the dry vs. the wet. Usually water (wet) is symbolic of life and in this case is representative of many different types of lives lived, from the Euphrates, the Nile, to the Mississippi.

I think that this is another point to remember too, that the Renaissance was a movement to express black culture and experience. Before such culture and experience was not accurately represented, or even largely created by black artists.

This is probably another important thing to note, that the migration of people from rural to urban areas created a shift in culture and perspective. The Harlem Renaissance was born after the largest mass migration of black Americans coming from the South to Northern cities.

Reminds me of the ghost metaphor, about being there and not at the same time. So the "New Negro" doesn't really exist because there was never an "Old Negro", but it does exist at the same time because of the power of the myth.

I think this is kind of happening today where POC stories are trendy right now in Hollywood. Some artists feel uncomfortable being a part of this trend, but at the same time hope to take advantage of it in order to share their experiences and represent their communities. But an individual can only do so much to represent the whole.

It seems that this is a sentiment that many classmates, including myself, have experienced in one form or another. It's interesting, and sad, that such a sentiment exists today, where European values and virtues are much more desirable.

This is true in a sense, that if we cannot tap into our own experiences, into what we know, then creative work will suffer. Race is a societal construct that greatly alters the experiences of people that live within it.

In this section I think there are the motifs of frustrated desire along with women and men. There is also the issue of time since the speaker in this section see’s their partner beside them but also ahead of them on the road with another. There is a strong desire to know who this person is, for one reason or another (i.e not for infidelity reasons necessarily but there is still a strong desire to know). Though the speaker makes a point to mention that they don’t know the gender of the hooded figure, they could be either a man or woman.

There are a few motifs in this section, like zombies, exile, and unnatural time. The brown fog of a winter dawn seems unnatural because of the colors (brown = pollution?) and the hour (dawn) doesn’t connote a busy time. And yet there is a large crowd flowing over the London Bridge, a crowd undone by death, who simply sigh and breathe as they walk across the bridge. Each man’s eyes are fixated before their feet, almost like they’re mindlessly traveling from somewhere, a place that that they may have been exiled from and can no longer stay in. Which results in this zombie-like journey.

I wonder why this is an important detail to note, because it's implied that it would affect the seer's abilities.

Warmth isn't coming from huddling up by a camp fire, it's from the snow itself. Weird that it's snow that is keeping the speaker and "us" warm.

This section is somewhat confusing because life is being described as cruel. But it's not obviously cruel life, it's that things are just coming to be, like flowers in spring.

This poem is really interesting, where an outsider once shunned becomes accepted into the community. It's strange how even today the US has retained its anti-intellectual sentiment.

There's no punctuation at all in this poem. It seems like a brief, almost conversational moment.

Each second line of the stanzas is substantially shorter. At most it's comprised of two words.

Grounding is important in any type of creative work. It's really common to hear people talk about how much they hate abstract work.

This is a rule that still exists today. Adjectives and adverbs don't actually help create an image in the reader's mind. It can instead make something much more difficult to read because it's overwritten. (e.g The dastardly spectre lunged dramatically to his ultimate doom - like what the heck does that even mean?)

This is really true for a lot of works in the creative fields, most recently video games. There is a process and a lot of work that goes into producing art and to not be aware of this process or have experience in it doesn't lead to fair criticism.

Riveted pride is an interesting word choice. A rivet can mean to physically secure or fasten something with a bolt, to hold, etc. I wonder if this means that he had a false sense of pride that insecurity eventually wore down.

A mignonette is another type of flower, one that is extremely fragrant. It was once used to make yellow dyes.

I wonder why he would be retelling this with a sigh, since it implies that he regrets not taking the easy way out.

I think that this is an interesting turn in the poem, which so far has read as a piece that emphasizes the point of taking your time and enjoying things (i.e to stop and smell the roses). But this last stanza and lines create a sense of urgency and stress.

This reminds me of the short story graphic The Neighbor where the fence was was used to emphasize the distance between two people who lived next to each other.

Why is there such a song and dance around drinking? I know some people are really bothered by drinking alone.

"not a native near" kind of implies that Mr. Flood himself is not a native, and therefore an outsider.

This is also the only you in the poem, so it suddenly shifts to this address that the poet is making to someone. If it's in reference to the sons and daughters from the lines above it would have been easy to just use "them" instead.

I think it's really interesting that in this poem this is the only word that is emphasized like this. It's the only action word written like this.

Is there also mold in the room, and it's worsening her condition? It would be another factor, besides being so isolated, as to why she's losing herself so dramatically.

It is really surprising how well this piece has aged through time. But I suppose that mental illness has always existed similar to the degree that it does now, people can just talk about it a little more.

It's like A Doll's House if the wife had no agency and was never able to leave. It's sad that she has an idea of what could make her better, but submits to her physician husband's advice instead.

The split in identity here really emphasizes what it is to be a ghost, to not be there but also there at the same time within society. The Black identity is a unique facet of American culture all in itself.

I think the feeling of being a problem is an interesting response to microaggressions. Usually it creates a sense of otherness but Dubois points out that this otherness is itself considered a problem, which is what is actually implied the more that I think about it.

So from what I understand the pursuit and overall message of the piece is reconciling the power of technology over religious faith? Adams seems to struggle with the shift in power not only in accepting it but understanding it as well.

Historically, there is a strong relationship between science and faith. During the scientific revolution, which is referenced throughout the piece, science and faith are hand in hand. With the concept of mechanical sciences (natural philosophy) the world is similar to a grand clock, which requires a grand creator.

For historians of science the arrangement of sequences can be fairly confusing when trying to figure out what is an actual influence. There are sometimes debates as to whether or not culture can influence science, or if science is influencing culture. Cause and effect is not always so clear.

Some of these lines/expressions are pretty absurd but maybe not for blatant shock value. I think it’s meant to symbolize the bigger picture or for how absurd the issue or society is in the poem.

Levine opens with this really intense and sad imagery, of off-putting food, tar and gasoline, and ending with images of the industrial. Even the environment (gray hills) are tainted by the hands of man and industrialization. There is also something incredibly unnatural about the Earth being gray, it goes beyond death.