Ryan L



Ryan L. Schrodt

Intro to English Studies

Rob Hale

30 April 2003

Soot and Sunshine: Reconciling America for Americans

America is often said to be the greatest nation in the world. Its social and economic influence can be seen in all reaches of the globe; this has been the case since the rise of America’s power that started during the Industrial Revolution and came to an apex following World War II. For some however, America is not such a beautiful place. For the lives of these Americans, everyday existence is filled with despair and shame. During the tumultuous period of American history that was the late 1940’s through the late 1950’s, many artists and philosophers found themselves feeling dejected towards American life. Allen Ginsberg was such an American. Ginsberg feared that America’s power was becoming too great, while its citizens suffered. However, Ginsberg felt that through art, life in America could be reconciled into a more positive experience. As it is clear through Ginsberg’s own biography, his poem “Sunflower Sutra” is a guide to living in America happily through art.

“America, I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing,” wrote Allen Ginsberg in 1956, roughly around the same time he wrote “Sunflower Sutra” (“America” 31). There may not be any more precise way for Ginsberg to have written his discontent with the lifelessness he felt in America in the decade following the post-Industrial Revolution era that ended after World War II. This time period was one of great prosperity for American; it “emerged from World War I as the world’s leading economic power” (Robbins 91). Despite the Great Depression (and the scapegoating of certain American citizens that followed), the American machine continued its economic supremacy through

the first half of the century and exited World War II, along with the Soviet Union, as the most dominant power in the world. Not surprisingly, with its eminent world power, the focus of America began to be centered around foreign policy; and as the scope broadened, so did the American identity, making the individual obsolete in the shadow of the nation as a whole. This came to an apex with the foreign-focused Eisenhower administration, an administration whose only homeward focus was the Red Scare of McCarthyism, which lead to more alienation of the individual and a sense of despair and fear for the nation (Mee 408-410).

This alienation gives truth to Ginsberg’s statement from the paragraph above. Americans were expected to give their all to be a part of the new American machine—i.e. the political and economic powerhouse—and give up their individual identity in doing so. By becoming a part of the unified mass, the individual really did give all and become nothing. In America there were no persons, only portions of the whole. In retaliation, poems became more personal. The new American poets were not concerned with objectivism and form, instead they focused on autobiographical poems that conveyed a feeling or spontaneous emotion. Out of this came poetry readings and poet residencies in colleges, making the poetry more personal as it connected with the audience directly (“American Poetry” 2404-5).

The revolution of the individual poet did not stop at merely bringing their art to the forefront, however, it would continue through the art itself. For Ginsberg, like many other writers, the poem itself became the effective political voice. According to Carolyn Cassady, the wife of Ginsberg’s good friend Neal, no one expected Allen to ever voice his opinions in such an outspoken manner. In fact, after Ginsberg telegraphed President Eisenhower to tell him of his discontent with the state of the nation (which the Cassadys considered a “drastic measure”), Carolyn remarked that she “could not have imagined then what it was to lead to” (Cassady 222, 222). What it lead to was the printing of Ginsberg’s influential and controversial social and political commentary Howl and Other Poems, which included “Sunflower Sutra.” Through his writings, Ginsberg was allowed to articulate his feelings that America “was in an awful state, complete anarchy, violent chaos, sado-masochistic barroom confusion, and clinical hysteria” (qtd. in Simpson 55).

These feelings were articulated in “Sunflower Sutra” through the destruction caused by the “once powerful mad American/locomotive” (61-61). The locomotive has killed the sunflower, whose roots are now covered with the “rubber dollar bills, skin of machinery, the guts and/innards of the weeping coughing car, the empty lonely tincans with their rusty tongues alack” that have been caused by the locomotive (44-46). However, the locomotive itself is now “impotent” and a “specter;” it no longer has its power and majesty, the excitement of the Industrial Revolution has faded, and progress has become stagnate. The only power the locomotive—i.e. America—has is the power to destroy. Yet the question must be asked, what does American seem to destroy?

In 1803, William Blake published a collection of poems entitled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the two contrary States of the Human Soul. In this collection was the poem “Ah! Sun-Flower,” which in 1945 was the focus of an auditory hallucination that Ginsberg experienced. While laying in bed in his apartment in Harlem, Ginsberg heard the voice of Blake reading the poem. “It suddenly appeared,” Ginsberg would later say, “the poem I’d read a lot of times before, over familiar to the point where it didn’t make any particular meaning except some sweet thing about flowers” (qtd. in Carter 36). In his hallucination, Ginsberg gained a further understanding of the poem. It was no longer just about flowers; instead it was about how he should live his life. From this point on, Ginsberg vowed to spend the rest of his life as a poet (Diggory 206). Years later Ginsberg stated that from the experience he understood that he should “never deny the voice—no, never forget it” (qtd. in Carter 37); the voice gave Ginsberg’s life meaning, or rather reassured him that there was meaning in his life. He saw himself as the flower in the poem, reaching towards the sun. He would then later write about this in “Sunflower Sutra.”

In the poem, after he first saw the sunflower in the shade of the locomotive, Ginsberg is instantly reminded of the incident in Harlem in 1945: “I rushed up enchanted—it was my first sunflower, memories/of Blake—my visions—Harlem” (15-16). The sunflower, then, is associated with Ginsberg’s hallucinations; in turn the sunflower is then associated with the voice that Ginsberg should never forget. Surprsingly, however, the sunflower is dead at the beginning of the poem. Ginsberg, in the shadow of the locomotive, sees “the gray Sunflower poised against the sunset, crackly bleak/and dusty with the smut and smog and smoke of olden/locomotives in its eye” (23-25). The sunflower, which one would expect to be yellow and vibrant, is instead gray with the by-products of the locomotive; the beauty of Ginsberg’s epiphany has been tarnished by America. The sunflower is not only covered in soot, it is destroyed by it. Ginsberg goes on to say that it is “broken like a battered/crown, seeds fallen out of its face, soon-to-be-toothless/mouth of sunny air, sunrays obliterated on its hairy head like a dried wire spiderweb” (26-29). The sunflower’s most beautiful attributes have been desecrated by the locomotive. The majestic petals, formerly like “sunrays” or a “crown,” are now more like the abandoned web of a spider

As stated earlier, in the post-World War II America, the individual was sacrificed in the name of the nation. The solitary sunflower in a San Francisco was sacrificed in the name of progress. Ginsberg makes it clear that this destruction was not the work of one man, but rather the devastation was the work of America: “The grime was no man’s grime but death and human/locomotives” (35-36). The emphasis of the soot that killed the sunflower being “no man’s” grime is indicative of the fact that this was not the work of the individual, but of the system. The locomotive, as stated previously, is America and America killed the sunflower. The blame on society becomes even greater when Ginsberg tells the sunflower of the “artificial worse-than-dirt—/industrial—modern—all that civilization spotting [its]/crazy golden crown” (39-41). Industry, fabrication, and civilization have caused the damage to the sunflower, “spotting” it with their grime. The idea of this grime being completely “artificial” and “industrial” casts more negativity on the idea of so-called progress, which in terms of America represents the economic superiority of the country, as well as technical and scientific advancements that lead to the weaponry of America that allowed to become such a social powerhouse via intimidation, and in turn lead to the alienation of the individual.

However, it is clear that the American ‘system’ is not completely to blame, as “civilization” also has played a role in the violation and desecration of the sunflower. Civilization, or society, has stifled the sunflower and kept it from being the beacon of brilliance that Ginsberg associates with Blake. As Blake and the Harlem visions are associated with artistry and Ginsberg’s emergence as a poet, civilization then can be interpreted as a threat to artistry, which narrows the focus of Ginsberg’s critique on America.

For Ginsberg, the voice of the American individual faces ridicule and oppression. In the tumultuous time in which Ginsberg was living at the time he wrote the poems for Howl and Other Poems, freedom of speech was threatened. Much of this had to do with the Red Scare, but it was also a reflection of the backlash after World War II. In Hitler and the Nazi regime, the world saw exactly how vile humanity can be. If one were to be completely free, they would have the opportunity to explore the possibilities that may lead to another Shoah or similar catastrophe for humanity. For many, this meant that the freedom of speech must be restricted. Ginsberg lashed out against this in a 1968 interview:

I’m saying no, that the police can’t come in with guns or arms and take me to jail for speaking. I’m speaking of old constitutional free speech. Or that the state should not be intruding on discourse in public, public discourse. And the state has a tendency to do that. I mean I’ve experienced it in my own work, say my first work, and I’ve experienced it occasionally—well, I’m experiencing it now in these FCC regulations. (qtd. in Carter 83)

In the passage it is clear that Ginsberg is an advocate of having the right to state his opinions and beliefs without being oppressed by the state. Although this may seem to initially speak only for public political discourse, Ginsberg associates such censorship with his “first work.” This is a reference to the controversial publishing of Howl and Other Poems.

In the fall of 1956, shortly after Ginsberg first read the poem “Howl” at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, Lawrence Ferlinghetti published Howl and Other Poems for City Lights. As the initial reading of “Howl” had created a stir in the San Francisco literary circles, the first edition sold out quickly before it could get much of a mainstream acclaim. A second edition was printed in England, but was seized by the U.S. Customs Office, as they had deemed it “obscene literature” (Cassady 287). The book, which contains “Sunflower Sutra” and the ever-controversial “America,” was highly critical of American society as well as its government. It was only after a series of professors and poets defended the work that it was allowed to be mass produced and Ferlinghetti was released from jail (Ginsberg BC). Interestingly enough, Ginsberg was actually in Europe at the time of this fiasco. Ginsberg had been planning to leave the United States since the late 1940’s, but felt compelled to make the best of his stay in New York and “remain ignorant of Europe” while he sorted out his understanding of the world following his hallucinations (qtd. in Gifford 51). Clearly Ginsberg had the intentions to leave the country that he felt was oppressing him, and ironically, when he left, he was oppressed as an artist.

Ginsberg, however, would not be content with such oppression. In his life he would continue to write and publish poems for decades. He would use his art as a way to voice his opinions and seemingly escape from the oppression he was facing. In order to alleviate the pressure he felt, in the poem, Ginsberg “grabbed up the skeleton thick sunflower and stuck it at [his]/side like a scepter” (65-66). The action of stabbing himself in the side with the sunflower is an allusion to the crucifixion of Christ, whom was stabbed in the side while he was hung upon the cross. This action is symbolic of resurrection and salvation in the poem, as it is associated with the Christ’s crucifixion. As it is symbolic of resurrection it must be directly linked to death, which means that the resurrection must be applied to the sunflower, as it is the only thing that is dead in the poem. The salvation aspect of the poem must be applied to the living, which, in this case, are Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. This is strengthened by the fact that Ginsberg states that he must “deliver [his] sermon to [his] soul, and Jack’s soul too” (67).

The question then, is how Ginsberg can provide salvation for himself and Kerouac as well as resurrect the sunflower. The answer is in the “sermon” that he gives to himself, Kerouac, and “anyone/who’ll listen” at the end of the poem (67-68). This speech reads:

We’re not our skin of grime, we’re not our dread bleak dusty

imageless locomotive, we’re all beautiful gold sunflowers

inside, we’re blessed by our own seed & golden hairy naked

accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black formal sun-

flowers in the sunset, spied on by our eyes under the shadow

of the mad locomotive riverbank sunset Frisco hilly tincan

evening sitdown vision. (69-76).

In this passage, not coincidently the final seven lines of the poem, the reader understands how the poem lives up to its title. A ‘sutra,’ according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a “short mnemonic rule.” Therefore, the title refers to some sort philosophical rule or guide that deals with the sunflower. This harkens the reader back to the auditory hallucinations of Blake’s “Ah! Sunflower” that Ginsberg was to “never deny” and “never forget” (qtd. in Carter 37). The “sermon” then becomes the guide for life that will give salvation to Ginsberg, Kerouac, and any other American living in despair. “We’re not our skin of grime,” Ginsberg proclaims. We are not to believe that we are the products of America, nor are we to believe in the oppression and alienation that it lays before us. Instead, we are to see that we are not “our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive,” but rather that we are all “beautiful golden sunflowers.” In this statement, Ginsberg brings new life to the sunflower by making it a part of those who will listen. It is also important to note that we are not “our...locomotive,” as the locomotive represents the horrific side of America, something that those who receive this salvation are not. It is only through living this way, as sunflowers, that salvation can come.

However, it is not completely clear at the end of the poem what is meant by living as sunflowers. Again, the reader must go back to the hallucinations in Harlem to understand Ginsberg’s message. As stated earlier, on that day Ginsberg decided that being a poet was the vocation he would pursue for the rest of his life. Just as the flower in Blake’s “Ah! Sunflower” reaches for the sun, Ginsberg would strive towards poetry (Carter 37-38). Therefore, by living like the sunflower, salvation from the American machine will come. For Ginsberg this is being poet and not coincidently it is in his poem that he breathes new life into the dead sunflower in the rail yard in San Francisco. It is not coincidental that both men named in the poem are artists, Ginsberg as a poet and Kerouac as a novelist. As artists, they have the best chance to learn from the poem, and therefore, have the best chance of salvation. “Sunflower Sutra” shows how Ginsberg uses art to cope with the harsh reality that he was living through. As the poem is a sutra, this is a guide for how through beauty and the appreciation of beauty—which can be seen as a definition of art—America can be reconciled for Americans.

Works Cited

“American Poetry since 1945” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume 2.

Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. pp. 2403-2414

Carter, David ed. Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews of Allen Ginsberg 1958-1996.

New York: Harper Collins Publishing, 2001.

Cassady, Carolyn. Off The Road: My Years With Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg.

New York: Penguin Books, 1990.

Diggory, Terence. “Allen Ginsberg’s Urban Pastoral.” The Beat Generation. Ed. Kostas

Myrsiades. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2002. pp. 201-219.

Gifford, Barry ed. As Ever: The Collected Correspondence of Allen Ginsberg and Neal

Cassady. Berkeley: Creative Arts Book Company, 1977.

Ginsberg, Allen. “Sunflower Sutra.” Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City

Lights Books, 1969. pp. 28-30

Ginsberg, Allen. “America.” Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights

Books, 1969. pp. 31-34

Ginsberg, Allen Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1969.

Biographical and publishing information on back cover.

Mee, Charles Jr. “Dwight David Eisenhower: I Like Ike.” American Heritage

Illustrated History of the American Presidents. Ed. Michael Beschloss. New York: Crown Publishers, 2000. pp. 405-417.

Robbins, Richard H. Global Probles and the Culture of Capitalism. Boston: Allyn &

Bacon Publishing, 1999.

Simpson, Louis Aston. A Revolution In Taste. New York: Macmillan, 1978.

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