with your eyes with your eyes
Repetition of this specific phrase indicates a longing, a search for understanding. With your eyes is meant to attempt to understand Naomi's life, her perspectives, her motivations. Note that each sentence beginning with this phrase is also an unpleasant one, unlocking the cruel realities of Naomi's life.
Naomi, Naomi—sweating, bulge-eyed, fat, the dress unbuttoned at one side—hair over brow, her stocking hanging evilly on her legs—screaming for a blood transfusion—one righteous hand upraised
Evil and righteous contradict each other here to reflect the internal and external views of Naomi Ginsberg. This stanza is loaded with meaning and emotion, reflecting the multifaceted experience of grief that allows for both reflection of the evil and cruelty of the deceased as well as an understanding of their psyche.
Later a mortal avalanche, whole mountains of homosexuality, Matterhorns of cock, Grand Canyons of asshole—weight on my melancholy head—
Examining sexuality in a poem about his dead mother--interesting choice. Seems like a slam on the breaks before talking about walking on Broadway, rejecting the linear narrative seen in some poetry
Bridges by deerless creeks, old wampum loading the streambeddown there a tomahawk or Pocahontas bone—and a million old ladies voting for Roosevelt in brown small houses, roads off the Madness highway—
What does it mean to be an American? Despair and monotony, discrimination, examining the destruction of nature for capitalism
You once kicked Elanor in the leg, she died of heart failure later. You of stroke. Asleep? within a year, the two of you, sisters in death. Is Elanor happy?
Murder versus natural causes, confessional of the evil of his mother. Potentially examining the consequences of her actions? Implication that her stroke was caused due to kicking her sister
pitiful—yet Triumph,
Contrast between these two drastically different emotions, the experiences of the human ego
in sacrifice to change’s fierce hunger—hair and teeth—and the roar of bonepain, skull bare, break rib, rot-skin, braintricked Implacability.
Examination of human pain and suffering characteristic of beat poetry. Could also be examining the post-death body to cope with mother's death
American city a flash away, and the great dream of Me or China, or you and a phantom Russia,
Juxtaposition of vastly different cultures, presented with the common denominator of humanity underlying them as Ginsberg explores morality as he sees it
as in the Hebrew Anthem, or the Buddhist Book of Answers
Death as a central theme that transgresses boundaries of race, nationality, religion is explored here
sleep with quandariness
A state of perplexity or doubt (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quandary#:~:text=%3A%20a%20state%20of%20perplexity%20or%20doubt). Examining his emotions as they come to them, allowing them to flow out from himself. He is training his attention beyond authorship and gaining acute awareness of his existence.
I get a little Verlaine for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine
Fragments the stream of consciousness exploration of his day with an exploration of the mental. An unstructured examination of his thoughts and awareness of how he is thinking, the way he is led to choose Verlaine.
and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
Awareness of his body is shown here, with fluidity seen as he alternates between present and memory to explore both his physical and mental presence
I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days
Stream of consciousness authorship, considering the actions he is taking and channeling his awareness of the world around him, the "muggy" street and "ugly" text
the moss
Moss is a natural presence, meant to describe natural feelings growing
.
Note punctuation presence in this poem, differing from her other work
We brethren are,”
Changes the tone, conflicts with simplistic language and formalizes the poem with "brethren"
died for beauty
Beauty in the darkness, clipped sounds of the words due to only one or two syllables, simple language
tomb
Conflicts with the beauty in first line to create an intense contrast
I am happy and dance and sing
This moment animates the poem to allow the reader to picture the image of a happy child, dancing and singing in cold contrast with the child labour and parental neglect being mentioned in the rest of the poem.
They clothed me in the clothes of death
Transformation of child being clothed to image of death, from child to worker on the verge of death
woe
Snow and woe in this stanza have strong emphasis on the "o" vowel which mimics a sign of "oh" when said out loud.
Who made up a heaven of our misery.
Rejection of the church, contrast between heaven and misery from place of eternal peace to misery of working class life on earth. Could be statement that the church misleads the poor into neglecting their parental duties.
thing
"Thing" seems to be depersonalizing what seems to be a child, also is a th- sound almost like a hiss toward the child.
thus to come unto me;
Entire poem's flowery language is sullied by this; seems almost as if he wants to claim possession of her as "come unto me" seems like a demand to own this etherial being. When compared with how he tells her nothing will harm her or interrupt her journey, it seems as though only he can be the end goal.
thee;
Emphasis on "thee" seems to be depersonalizing himself and his emotions from Julia. Gives a mystical element to Julia as a being of light and stars away from human love.
shooting stars
Nature imagery throughout, "sparks of fire," stars," natural phenomena to describe how phenomenal he believes Julia is.
wantonness;
Dress and wantonness; there and stomacher; note and petticoat; art and part. All AA rhyme schemes with two lines with no rhymes between each -- a purposeful artistic choice? Perhaps to draw more attention to the rhyming lines?
Cuccu known not for "crazy" like modern era, but has deeper linguistic meaning. Cuccu known for male mating cry, and could mean spring rebirth and mating. Comparative to Greek kokkyx, Latin cuculus, Middle Irish cuach, and Sanskrit kokilas (information from https://www.etymonline.com/word/cuckoo)
Nor will you ever stop now.
This line doesn't exist in the original poem -- Where did it come from? Disrupts flow of the poem
þ
-th sound, to make it more flowery and musical (versus a harsh popping -p sound), smooths the song
ing
S is implied, performances add the s https://youtu.be/zhuw_2CUEec - Possibly due to lack of standardization of English?