Read this excerpt from Allen Ginsberg’s "A Supermarket in California." I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator. Why does Ginsberg make an allusion to Walt Whitman in this excerpt?

Ginsberg addresses Whitman directly and imagines him as a lonely outsider wandering through an ordinary supermarket. The phrase “childless, lonely old grubber” emphasizes Whitman’s isolation, while the speaker’s intimate greeting suggests recognition and kinship. The allusion therefore points to a shared sense of being an outcast, not simply to Whitman’s shopping habits or poetic techniques.

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