Question

Read this stanza from Allen Ginsberg’s "A Supermarket in California."

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

Why does the author most likely use free verse for this stanza?

Answer 1

C

The long-line structure imitates stream-of-conscious thought.

Answer 2

The correct answer is:

The long-line structure imitates stream-of-conscious thought.

“A Supermarket in California” by Ginsberg evokes Walt Whitman and is written in a scarcely frenzied style by applying free verse. It is a satire on American excess that both praises and denounces the fast-moving vulgarity and the increasing threat of America in the 1950s.