a coney island of the mind by lawrence ferlinghetti

While there is a kernel of truth to this, Coney Island of the Mind contains few of these flaws. Additionally, when he writes that he would 'paint' a different Paradiso, there's definitely a literal element to his statement, for Ferlinghetti's work is also informed in a large way by his love of painting and his knowledge of Western masters as diverse as Goya, Chagall, and the abstract expressionists.Ĭritics of Ferlinghetti have noted that some of his poetry has dated, both in subject matter and in language. It also betrays many of Ferlinghetti's influences, which Blake and Pound as well as Whitman, along with continental romantics such as Rimbaud and Proust. The mixture of the sensual and the spiritual in this poem is very typical of the poems in Coney Island of the Mind (and Ferlinghetti's work in general). īut there would be no anxious angels telling them how heaven is the perfect picture of a monarchy and there would be no fires burning in the hellish holes below in which I might have stepped nor any alters in the sky except fountains of imagination I would paint a different kind of Paradiso in which the people would be naked as they always are.

A perfect example of this heady brew would be this excerpt from poem #13: Employing open elastic lines that often seesaw across the page, Ferlinghetti's verse is a unique combination of Whitmanesque proclamation and Dionysian celebration, where a deep love for life and art is interlaced with call for the human race to finally begin living up to its potential. The reason Coney Island of the Mind has held up so well is that it also marks the first full flowering of Ferlinghetti's considerable poetic gifts. Along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and Allen Ginsberg's Howl, Ferlinghetti's classic helped lay the artistic foundation for the counterculture movements of the 50s, 60s and beyond, to the point where even today it's a standard entry point for many wishing to explore the serious literary underground.īut it's far more that just a cultural signpost.

Raw sales, though, only tell part of the story. With roughly a million copies in print, few poetry collections come anywhere close to matching its readership.

As a social phenomenon Coney Island of the Mind is truly remarkable.

A coney island of the mind by lawrence ferlinghetti