The Beats vs. NY School

Allen Ginsberg and John Ashbery are tow poets from two deferent schools, where the first one is from the Beats and the second one is from the New York School. Furthermore, those two poets have a similar poetic style, but at the same time they hold some differences which make them relate to their schools of poetry.

On one hand, Allen Ginsberg wrote his poem “A Supermarket In California” in a form that looked like a story, which started with some feeling he had and went to describe the whole supermarket atmosphere. He wanted to send a message to the past poet, Walt Whitman, and tell him how life changed in America. Moreover, he wanted to highlight the changes that happened in people’s lives since Whitman’s time and until his time. Furthermore, he used long lines, no visible breaks that a reader can follow, and had an interesting flow that makes the reader what to read more and engage him/her to the story in the poem. He used a simple language and straight forward images that a reader can easily comprehend without struggling when it comes to understand the poem.

On the other hand, John Ashbery wrote his poem “The Painter” in a way that he wanted the reader to picture a painter drawing some art work. He used metaphor in his poem to make it easier to the reader to understand and visualize what he wanted to say. For example, at the beginning of the poem, he compared the painter to “children imagine a prayer”. Furthermore, the randomness in his poem make it a little harder to comprehend compared to Ginsberg’s poem, but at the same time used a simple language that helps the reader understand without digging for hidden meanings and images.