assignment 1 ferlinghetti

“In Golden Gate Park That Day” is a very interesting portrait of SF in Ferlinghetti's repertoire. Here the mongrel space city is captured very cohesively. Ferlinghetti's use of the past tense in “the enormous meadow which was the meadow of the world” twice in the poem. This gives the poem a remorse for the two deadbeats, wadding in a dream long lost (whether or not the two can be called “beats” is indiscernible due to Ferlinghetti's pronounced separation from the movement- maybe hippies?). As the wife hands out grapes to squirrels, “as if each were a little joke,” it is not apparent in the poem who is receiving the pun of the joke: the squirrels or the humans. The tone does not change much until the very when the mood is revealed in a “certain awful look of terrible depression.” Prior to the reader knowing the girls state of emotion, the “joke” can be of life to the two carefree hippies enjoying themselves in nature, pursuing the beatitude between nature/civilization. The trees “dreamed and seemed to have been waiting thru all time for them,” suggesting a home setting and oneness. The two do not speak to each other seemingly in the harmony of the moment. Yet the silence is suggested by Ferlinghetti's repetition of phrases that separate the couple: “without looking at each other” (twice), “without saying anything,” “without any particular expression.” Thus, what could considered a classically romantized portrait of flower children is turned lamentful in the climax. I noticed Ferlinghetti's use of irony in the climax of previous poems; this ending however, does not provide comic relief. The age of free love of the San Francisco sub culture may be on the decline. The hostility suggested with the “without's” make the couple seem dysfunctional. If this poem were written in the 1960's it could have been taken for a critique of the emerging culture. However in a contemporary setting the two figures are much more appropriately “lost” and thus the critique falls upon the larger San Francisco community. Those still seeking the 1960's in public parks may have much to be depressed about.