A Coney Island of the Mind Research Papers

Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind, published in 1958, is a beat literature classic. The book includes twenty-nine poems written in free verse. Each of the poems combines an unconventional structure and populist tone to capture the spirit of the times and the non-academic nature of Ferlinghetti's poetry. This essay will examine basic poetic elements used in A Coney Island of the Mind and demonstrate that Ferlinghetti's form and language may use modern populist language, but his poetry contains many literary devices that have been used for centuries.

In the first poem of A Coney Island of the Mind, Ferlinghetti introduces the reader to a structure in which poetic lines appear as independent thoughts scattered across the page. The effect creates a rhythmic feel to the poem, where sentences are divided into broken syntax and singular images. The poem begins with an allusion to the painter Goya and his work, which is described with sweeping imagery of  "suffering humanity" that is so real, "it is as if they really existed." In what may be considered the next verse, Ferlinghetti employs enjambment to carry the concept of these suffering images still existing to the next verse, beginning with the paradoxical statement, "And they do."

Irony also plays an important role in this poem. Ferlinghetti continues with an allusion to Don Quixote's false windmills, and the alliterative hyperbole, "freeways fifty lanes wide/on a concrete continent." He depicts a modern world with billboards described, again with alliteration, as "illustrating imbecile illusions of happiness." Ferlinghetti uses irony to points out that although modern society seems to have progressed from the moment when "they first attained the title of suffering humanity", they are really the same people and have not progressed as much as become "further from home." Finally, Ferlinghetti finishes the poem with a contrast to the Goya images and grim picture of modern society with personified automobiles that maim citizens and metaphorically devour America.

The fourth poem in A Coney Island of the Mind begins "In a surrealist year," the uses alliteration, juxtaposition, assonance and irony to capture a dream-like tone that is both humorous and illuminating. The alliteration begins with "sandwichmen and sunbathers," and continues with "politicos and party whips," and "sawdust circuses." The ironic juxtaposition of "dead sunflowers and live telephones," is also a metaphor for a modern age in which technology, represented by the phones, is sometimes considered more alive than a living plant, which, in this case, has been left to die.

Order A Coney Island of the Mind Literature Research Papers Today...Order Here!

Custom A Coney Island of the Mind Research Papers from Paper Masters

A research paper is an in-depth examination of A Coney Island of the Mind. More than just an overview of what was learned on A Coney Island of the Mind, like a term paper is, a research paper contains analysis of A Coney Island of the Mind along the lines of organizational theory and relevant published material. Research papers are highly analytical and can often be more than 8 to 10 pages. The key to a good research project is the examination of recently published journal articles and peer-reviewed material on the A Coney Island of the Mind chosen. Like the name implies, research papers are exactly that, a paper that examines the information that can be found on A Coney Island of the Mind.