A Supermarket in California Analysis

Free VerseMuch like his idol, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg usually writes in free verse. His poems aren't structured by a traditional form, like a sonnet or ballad. However, this doesn't mean that...

Though we don't want to come out and say that the speaker and Allen Ginsberg are the exact same person (a speaker in a poem is always at least a little fictitious), the two are remarkably similar....

While the poem may be called "A Supermarket in California," only about half of the action in the poem takes place in the "neon" food store, where there are families, old ghostly poets, and lots of...

This poem has a whole bunch of exclamation points in the first few lines. When you read the poem out loud, you can't help but feel some excitement, even some jubilation, at first. There are so many...

Much of the poem takes place in a supermarket in California, so it's not like the title comes out of left field. But still, Shmoop wants to go deeper. The poem could be called, say, "Walt Whitman,...

Long Lines and Liberal ValuesLike his literary idol Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg is known for his super-long free verse lines. His poems many not be organized by traditional rhymes or meter, but th...

(3) Base Camp"A Supermarket in California" assumes that you're a pretty smart reader—that you know your Greek mythology and your poetry history. The speaker isn't going to waste time telling you...

Ginsberg was a lifelong Buddhist and taught many classes on the topic. The best part is, even though he's gone, we can still read his teachings, like this transcript of one of his classes. Take som...

PG"A Supermarket in California" doesn't have too much sex in it, but there is some innuendo. Walt Whitman casts some saucy glances and asks some suggestive questions at the grocery boys, but that's...

Literary and Philosophical References: Walt Whitman (throughout) Federico Garcia Lorca (3)