A Desolation by Allen Ginsberg
PoemNow mind is clear
as a cloudless sky. Time then to make a home in wilderness. What have I done but wander with my eyes in the trees? So I will build: wife, family, and seek for neighbors. Or I perish of lonesomeness or want of food or lightning or the bear (must tame the hart and wear the bear). And maybe make an image of my wandering, a little image—shrine by the roadside to signify to traveler that I live here in the wilderness awake and at home. |
AnalysisThe title "a desolation" means a state of complete emptiness. With this being said, I already know that the poem is about him trying to possibly escape someone or something. In the poem Ginsberg said "So I will build: wife, family and seek for neighbors". To me, he's trying to say that he will build these things with nature around him, with the animals that he will be surrounded by in the emptiness of the world. Ginsberg also says "Now mind is clear as a cloudless sky, time then to make a home in wilderness". I believe this was written to paint a picture of what freedom really is and not what society makes it out to be. Freedom is wilderness, open space, a place where you can escape, where you can think on your own. The way the stanzas are set up throughout the poem, it's as though each one is a different thought, as though the writer is confused or unsure. It's a psychological issue. He's saying now he can do this, but what has he done, should he do this and maybe he was wrong. The entire poem is portraying a man vs. self conflict.
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Literary DevicesThe literary devices that are use within this poem are imagery, and similes.For example, "So I will build: wife, family, and seek for neighbors" is an example of imagery because the writer is painting the picture of him building these things. "Now mind is clear as a cloudless sky" is an example of a simile because it compares the writers mind to a cloudless sky using the words as.The purpose of these literary devices in the poem is to compare two things that are similar and have the same purpose. The way these literary devices are used within this poem is it is to show how he feels as though his mind is open and how he feels as though he is free in a sense because he has now escaped society and their ways. Now its just him the birds and the trees, no judgement or anything.
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