Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Allen Ginsberg's "Back on Times Square, Dreaming of Times Square" is a poignant reflection on memory, loss, and the inexorable passage of time. The poem, written with Ginsberg's characteristic rawness and vivid imagery, captures the essence of Times Square not just as a physical location, but as a symbol of personal and collective history.

The poem opens with an evocative image: "Let some sad trumpeter stand / on the empty streets at dawn / and blow a silver chorus to the / buildings of Times Square." This vision sets a melancholic tone, evoking a sense of nostalgia and loss. The emptiness of the streets at dawn suggests a time of reflection, a quiet moment before the hustle and bustle of the day begins. The "silver chorus" played by the trumpeter serves as a mournful tribute to the memories and experiences tied to Times Square.

The reference to the "thin white moon just / visible above the green & grooking McGraw / Hill offices" situates the poem in a specific urban landscape, blending the natural with the industrial. The juxtaposition of the moon and the McGraw Hill offices highlights the contrast between the timeless, serene beauty of nature and the transient, commercial reality of the city. The mention of a cop who is "invisible with his music" further blurs the lines between reality and dream, presence and absence.

Ginsberg delves into personal history with the lines, "The Globe Hotel, Garver lay in / grey beds there and hunched his / back and cleaned his needles - / where I lay many nights on the nod / from his leftover bloody cottons / and dreamed of Blake's voice talking." These lines provide a stark, intimate glimpse into the poet's past, marked by drug use and a yearning for transcendence through the voice of the visionary poet William Blake. The visceral imagery of "bloody cottons" contrasts sharply with the ethereal dream of Blake's voice, underscoring the tension between the sordid reality and the aspiration for higher truths.

The sense of loss is palpable as Ginsberg recounts, "Garver's dead in Mexico two years, / hotel's vanished into a parking lot." The death of a friend and the demolition of a familiar place highlight the impermanence of life and the relentless march of time. The transformation of the hotel into a parking lot symbolizes the erasure of personal history and the encroachment of modernity on spaces once imbued with meaning.

The poet's return to Times Square is marked by a sense of displacement and longing: "And I'm back here - sitting on the streets / again - / The movies took our language, the / great red signs / A DOUBLE BILL OF GASS

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