Read the last stanza from Allen Ginsberg’s "A Supermarket in California."Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe? At the end of his poem, Ginsberg uses these allusions to convey a feeling of
Answer
A
hopefulness that modern-day America can turn back the hands of time.
B
doom and gloom caused by the pressure of conforming with the middle-class American society.
C
sadness since the speaker will never experience the same America as in Whitman’s day.
D
pride and appreciation for his fellow poet’s role in American literary history.
Explanation
Charon ferries the dead across the river, and Lethe is the river of forgetfulness in Greek mythology. By imagining Whitman leaving the world and asking what America he had, the speaker expresses sadness and longing for the America Whitman knew—a country the speaker feels he cannot experience in the same way. This makes “sadness since the speaker will never experience the same America as in Whitman’s day” the best answer.
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