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Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti Questions & Answers

Resolved Question: Why is there an '&' sign in Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a merc?
Hi, I am currently studying this poem for my english exam in November and I was wondering why the poet of this poem used an '&' sign instead of 'and' in lines 12 and 24? Does it mean something? Thanks.

Resolved Question: stanza's in the changing light poem by lawrence ferlinghetti?
how many stanza's are in the peom the changing light and what form is used?

Resolved Question: Good Poetry vs Bad Poetry -- Do You Agree?
The essense of bad poetry seems to be that it is a Goof-on-Ya. It is all smoke and mirrors designed to fool you into thinking that it means something, when actually it means about as much as a Rorschact Test -- an ink blot in which you are supposed to see something. Often the bad poem is composed almost entirely of words like vapor, mist, haze, cloudy, shadow, gauzy, and many abstract metaphysical words like love, yearning, music, hope, spirit, goodness, etc. These words are strung together like a hall of smoke and mirrors. The reader is invitted to walk down that hall and find some meaning there. It's a game of Goof-on-Ya. The poet is putting us on, having a goof on us, trespassing on our credulity and goodwill. The good poem, has ping. You know that the poet is describing something very real, not just to him/her, but to you as well. Take a line by Dylan "threw the bums a dime in your prime". It's got action. It got a picture of an event. It's got concrete terms -- dime -- bums. It's got a possible allusion to John D. Rockefeller Sr. who was famous in the 20's for handing out dimes to the indigents he met on the street. It also relates to possible street musicians in the 1960's who would leave their guitar cases open on the street as they played, and passersby who liked the music could throw in a dime, or a dollar. Anyhow, Dylan is not just talking about his hazy, gauzy, feelings of hope and love and abstract clouds in vaporland. He is making a presentation. He is carrying the burden and performing the mission of the poet by manifesting something real. Frost is great at this, and T.S. Eliot, and Shakespeare. You know the poem is not a goof-on-ya counterfeit designed to fool you into thinking there is meaning where there's really just a string of cloudy abstract words. Emily Dickenson wrote poems with true ping. They ring out clear and honest. EE Cummings and Lawrence Ferlinghetti did too. They are not trying to get over on you with counterfeit -- they are giving you the real coin, tested in the crucible, fashion in the mint of experience of real things and real events. Or, do you think, a rose is a rose is a rose, a poem is a poem is a poem. Who is to say that one is good and the other bad? Why isn't the hapless musing of little Billy goofboy just as valuable as a work of art as any sonnet by Shakespeare. We need some equality and some democracy in the arts. So, break dancing and ballet -- same diff. Goof on Ya poems and songs by Dylan, same diff. Jackson Pollock and Rembrandt same diff. Beethoven's 9th and a tractor pull soundtrack, same diff. Good versus Bad is just a distinction made by elitists and snobs, who don't want to really get down with the homeboys in the hood. Poems are all equal.

Resolved Question: Does Anyone Know Where I Can Find These Poems ;?
The Poems Are ; . Limbo by Edward Kamau Brathwaite . Nothing's Changed by Tatamkhulu Afrika . Island Man by Grace Nichols . Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker . Two Scavengers In a Truck by Lawrence Ferlinghetti . Night Of The Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel . Vultures by Chinua Achebe . What Were They Like by Denise Levertov . (From) Search For My Tounge by Sujata Bhatt . Love After Love by Derker Walcott . This Room by Imtiaz Dharker . (From) Unrelated Incidents by Tom Leonard . Half - Caste by John Agard . Not My Business by Niyi Osundare . Presents From My Aunts ... by Monzia Alvi . Hurricane Hits England by Grace Nichols Thank You

Resolved Question: Why don't we share some famous quotes?
Here's a good one for my fellow Republicans, re: the left..... "Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately." -----Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Resolved Question: What is the best introduction to Lawrence Ferlinghetti?
I'm looking for a nice introduction to his poetry rather than his prose work, ty all.

Voting Question: What do you think this poem is about? What emotions does it evoke for you?
The World Is A Beautiful Place - Lawrence Ferlinghetti The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind happiness not always being so very much fun if you don't mind a touch of hell now and then just when everything is fine because even in heaven they don't sing all the time The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind some people dying all the time or maybe only starving some of the time which isn't half bad if it isn't you Oh the world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't much mind a few dead minds in the higher places or a bomb or two now and then in your upturned faces or such other improprieties as our Name Brand society is prey to with its men of distinction and its men of extinction and its priests and other patrolmen and its various segregations and congressional investigations and other constipations that our fool flesh is heir to Yes the world is the best place of all for a lot of such things as making the fun scene and making the love scene and making the sad scene and singing low songs and having inspirations and walking around looking at everything and smelling flowers and goosing statues and even thinking and kissing people and making babies and wearing pants and waving hats and dancing and going swimming in rivers on picnics in the middle of the summer and just generally 'living it up' Yes but then right in the middle of it comes the smiling mortician

Resolved Question: did lawrence ferlinghetti move to america, if he did from where?
Ferlinghetti

Resolved Question: What are you waiting for, what does it mean to "wait"?
I Am Waiting I am waiting for my case to come up and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder and I am waiting for someone to really discover America and wail and I am waiting for the discovery of a new symbolic western frontier and I am waiting for the American Eagle to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right and I am waiting for the Age of Anxiety to drop dead and I am waiting for the war to be fought which will make the world safe for anarchy and I am waiting for the final withering away of all governments and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder I am waiting for the Second Coming and I am waiting for a religious revival to sweep through the state of Arizona and I am waiting for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored and I am waiting for them to prove that God is really American and I am waiting to see God on television piped’ onto church altars if only they can find the right channel to tune in on and I am waiting for the Last Supper to be served again with a strange new appetizer and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder I am waiting for my number to be called and I am waiting for the Salvation Army to take over and I am waiting for the meek to be blessed and inherit the earth without taxes and I am waiting for forests and animals to reclaim the earth as theirs and I am waiting for a way to be devised to destroy all nationalisms without killing anybody and I am waiting for linnets and planets to fall like rain and I am waiting for lovers and weepers to lie down together again in a new rebirth of wonder I am waiting for the Great Divide to ‘be crossed and I am anxiously waiting for the secret of eternal life to be discovered by an obscure general practitioner and I am waiting for the storms of life to be over and I am waiting to set sail for happiness and I am waiting for a reconstructed Mayflower to reach America with its picture story and tv rights sold in advance to the natives and I am waiting for the lost music to sound again in the Lost Continent in a new rebirth of wonder I am waiting for the day that maketh all things clear and I am awaiting retribution for what America did to Tom Sawyer and I am waiting for the American Boy to take off Beauty’s clothes and get on top of her and I am waiting for Alice in Wonderland to retransmit to me her total dream of innocence and I am waiting for Childe Roland to come to the final darkest tower and I am waiting for Aphrodite to grow live arms at a final disarmament conference in a new rebirth of wonder I am waiting to get some intimations of immortality by recollecting my early childhood and I am waiting for the green mornings to come again youth’s dumb green fields come back again and I am waiting for some strains of unpremeditated art to shake my typewriter and I am waiting to write the great indelible poem and I am waiting for the last long careless rapture and I am perpetually waiting for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn to catch each other up at last and embrace and I am waiting perpetually and forever a renaissance of wonder Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Resolved Question: Poll:Has your freedom of speech been curtailed?
Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately. by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Resolved Question: Does anyone have the poem #9?
Hello, I am looking for a poem called #9 and I think that it's by Lawrence Ferlinghetti but I am not %100 sure on that. I have to do a project on it but lost my textbook with the poem in it. Anyways if you have a copy of the poem can you post it here. Thank You!

Resolved Question: What is this poem about?
The Changing Light The changing light at San Francisco is none of your East Coast light none of your pearly light of Paris The light of San Francisco is a sea light an island light And the light of fog blanketing the hills drifting in at night through the Golden Gate to lie on the city at dawn And then the halcyon late mornings after the fog burns off and the sun paints white houses with the sea light of Greece with sharp clean shadows making the town look like it had just been painted But the wind comes up at four o'clock sweeping the hills And then the veil of light of early evening And then another scrim when the new night fog floats in And in that vale of light the city drifts anchorless upon the ocean Lawrence Ferlinghetti I can't get What this poem is about, It will be a great help if you guys explain it by line by line or in a summary! 15 points for the best explanation!!!!!!!!

Resolved Question: What is this poem about?
The Changing Light The changing light at San Francisco is none of your East Coast light none of your pearly light of Paris The light of San Francisco is a sea light an island light And the light of fog blanketing the hills drifting in at night through the Golden Gate to lie on the city at dawn And then the halcyon late mornings after the fog burns off and the sun paints white houses with the sea light of Greece with sharp clean shadows making the town look like it had just been painted But the wind comes up at four o'clock sweeping the hills And then the veil of light of early evening And then another scrim when the new night fog floats in And in that vale of light the city drifts anchorless upon the ocean Lawrence Ferlinghetti I can't get What this poem is about, It will be a great help if you guys explain it by line by line or in a summary! 15 points for the best explanation!!!!!

Resolved Question: can someone help me to analyze the poem " Pity the nation" from Lawrence Ferlinghetti?

Resolved Question: PLEASEEE HELPP! POETRY ANALYSIS?
In the poem 'A Buddha In The Woodpile' by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, how does the poem illustrate human behavior and people's control, or lack of control of how they behave? Thank you soo muchh to anyone who can help! (: And the first sorta decent answer gets Best Answer! (: A BUDDHA IN THE WOODPILE by Lawrence Ferlinghetti If there had been only one Buddhist in the woodpile in Waco Texas to teach us how to sit still one saffron Buddhist in the back rooms just one Tibetan lama just one Taoist just one Zen just one Thomas Merton Trappist just one saint in the wilderness of Waco USA If there had been only one calm little Gandhi in a white sheet or suit one not-so-silent partner who at the last moment shouted Wait If there had been just one majority of one in the lotus position in the inner sanctum who bowed his shaved head to the Chief of All Police and raised his hands in a mudra and chanted the Great Paramita Sutra the Diamond Sutra the Lotus Sutra If there had somehow been just one Gandhian spinner with Brian Willson at the gates of the White House at the Gates of Eden then it wouldn't have been Vietnam once again and its "One two three four What're we waitin' for?" If one single ray of the light of the Dalai Lama when he visited this land had penetrated somehow the Land of the Brave where the lion never lies down with the lamb-- But not a glimmer got through The Security screened it out screened out the Buddha and his not-so-crazy wisdom If only in the land of Sam Houston if only in the land of the Alamo if only in Wacoland USA if only in Reno if only on CNN CBS NBC one had comprehended one single syllable of the Gautama Buddha of the young Siddhartha one single whisper of Gandhi's spinning wheel one lost syllable of Martin Luther King or of the Early Christians or of Mother Teresa or Thoreau or Whitman or Allen Ginsberg or of the millions in America tuned to them If the inner ears of the inner sanctums had only been half open to any vibrations except those of the national security state and had only been attuned to the sound of one hand clapping and not one hand punching Then that sick cult and its children might still be breathing the free American air of the First Amendment

Voting Question: which 18th century poet should I write my essay on?
so these are the options- e.e. cummings - Is 5 Mary Oliver - House of Light Robert Frost - North of Boston Langston Hughes - The Panther and the Lash Martin Espada - Imagine the Angels of Bread Lawrence Ferlinghetti - A Coney Island of the Mind Gwendolyn Brooks - The Bean Eaters (within the larger collected volume, Blacks) Sylvia Plath - Ariel I am just wondering from anyone who has read them, which ones have the most material on the internet about them, which ones are the least confusing, basically which ones you would recommend.

Voting Question: Which 18th century poet should I write my essay on?
so these are the options- e.e. cummings - Is 5 Mary Oliver - House of Light Robert Frost - North of Boston Langston Hughes - The Panther and the Lash Martin Espada - Imagine the Angels of Bread Lawrence Ferlinghetti - A Coney Island of the Mind Gwendolyn Brooks - The Bean Eaters (within the larger collected volume, Blacks) Sylvia Plath - Ariel I am just wondering from anyone who has read them, which ones have the most material on the internet about them, which ones are the least confusing, basically which ones you would recommend.

Resolved Question: ever posted your Poems here and had them stolen?
i am nervous, i have posted a few of my poems on here to find out what people think about them. i had just met a very wise and old Lawrence Ferlinghetti and he read some of my poems and said that he loves them, he then warned me not to show them till i publish them due to it would be horrible if they were stolen. now i fear of people stealing the poems i have posted here, has anyone ever had their poems stolen by posting them on here to get feedback?

Voting Question: what type of poem is "The Old Italians Dying" By Lawrence Ferlinghetti ?

Resolved Question: How to find out background info on two poems?
Does anyone know how to find out when and why these poems were written: -Two scavengers in a truck, two beautiful people in a mercedes(Lawrence Ferlinghetti) -Nothing's Changed(Tatamkhulu Afrika) if possible, please include social ideas and ethics in the time period and places. I have already looked on google and Bitesize thankyou

Resolved Question: What do you think? Is it poetry?
There are conflicting opinions on what makes poetry poetry. Lyrical poetry...is it really poetry? For example, is Bob Dylan a poet? Once, after attending a Dylan concert in Berkeley with Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was embittered, ranting about a stringy kid with an electric guitar drawing a bigger audience than a major poet such as himself. In an interview with Robert Shelton, Ferlinghetti acknowledged that Dylan has a poet's imagination, but added, "I still think he needs that guitar." So, what is poetry? What makes something a poem and not just a song? Paul Garon, for example, has made the emphatic and stipulative pronouncement that all blues is self-evidently poetry and that those who think otherwise must be mentally defective. What do you think? I asked this question in the poetry section, but figured I should ask it here as well. Thanks for the answers!

Resolved Question: What do you think? Is it poetry?
There are conflicting opinions on what makes poetry poetry. Lyrical poetry...is it really poetry? For example, is Bob Dylan a poet? Once, after attending a Dylan concert in Berkeley with Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was embittered, ranting about a stringy kid with an electric guitar drawing a bigger audience than a major poet such as himself. In an interview with Robert Shelton, Ferlinghetti acknowledged that Dylan has a poet's imagination, but added, "I still think he needs that guitar." So, what is poetry? What makes something a poem and not just a song? Paul Garon, for example, has made the emphatic and stipulative pronouncement that all blues is self-evidently poetry and that those who think otherwise must be mentally defective. What do you think?

Resolved Question: What is your interpretation of this poem?
Don't let that horse Don't let that horse eat that violin cried Chagall's mother But he kept right on painting And became famous And kept on painting The Horse With Violin In Mouth And when he finally finished it he jumped up upon the horse and rode away waving the violin And then with a low bow gave it to the first naked nude he ran across And there were no strings attached By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Resolved Question: Why does Ferlinghetti use anaphora in his poem I Am Waiting?
Why does Lawrence Ferlinghetti use anaphora in his poem I Am Waiting? I understand the repetition of "I am waiting" throughout the poem is an example of anaphora, but I don't understand why he is using it. Here's a link to the poem: http://www.think-ink.net/visit/waiting.htm Also, what other literary devices are in the poem? I've found a ton of allusions, but I can't seem to find anything else. Thanks in advance!

Resolved Question: Can someone help me annotate the poem The world is a beautiful place by Lawrence Ferlinghetti?
Like tell me about the similes metaphors assonace meaning and everything in a poem

Resolved Question: what shoudl I read on my honeymoon?
favorite books of mine: confederacy of dunces lawrence ferlinghetti calmity physics classics and indie classics

Resolved Question: How do you relate with a poem?10 points?
my teacher asked me to write a relfection for this poem. What things do you look for to relate?? or tips on writing a reflection for a poem. thanks! 10 points for best answer http://project1.caryacademy.org/echoes/poet_Lawrence_Ferlinghetti/SamplePoemFerlinghetti.htm the poem is called In Goya's Greatest Scenes We Seem to See

Resolved Question: I am tryihng to figure out a title for my english paper--help?
My paper is about how Walt Whitman uses imagery to convey to the reader that America has freedom and equality- the American Dream- and how Lawrence Ferlinghetti uses historical and literary allusions to convey that America does not have freedom and equality- that it does not have the American Dream. I'm thinking something like: The American Dream: Extinct like (an allusion to something historical/literary) or alive like (something with imagery) any ideas?

Resolved Question: I need a Walt Whitman poem to compare to a Lawrence Ferlinghetti quote?
I need to compare and contrast a Walt Whitman poem to a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem. Any ideas on what poems I should use?

Resolved Question: what does the poem 'I am waiting' by Lawrence Ferlinghetti mean?
This is how it starts: I am waiting for my case to come up and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder and I am waiting for someone to really discover America... and so and so on.... please someone help me im really confused and i have to write a paper bout it!!!

Resolved Question: Like this quote?
from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of the beat poets from the 1950s/early 60s beatnik scene in San Francisco: A"Be In" couldn't happen again in San Francisco. Not these days. "Be Here Now" was the slogan in the 60s. Now with cellphones and the internet and all, it's "Be Somewhere Else Now."

Resolved Question: what is the meter, if any, of the first two lines of this poem?
The dog trots freely in the street and sees reality it's from "Dog", by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Resolved Question: Where can I go to find Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "Poem # 1"?