The Pennycandystore Beyond The El By Lawrence Ferlinghetti Analysis

English Speech by: Louise Odendaal
From the beginning of time teenagers have been misunderstood due to their raging hormones, overly emotional outbursts and their impulsive urges to display random acts of heroism. Yes it’s true, they’re a rare species that ought not to be trifled with! But when an outburst occurs fear not for these creatures can be tamed with a hit of music from their iphones. But wait, what about the prehistoric times when the iphone didn’t exist? What tamed them then?! Believe it or not the exact same thing. Poetry. Teenagers, be prepared to be amazed, every song you’ve ever listened to is a form of poetry and you’re addicted to it! ‘Hits from History’ is a top selling book and today you are lucky enough to get a preview
“The Pennycandystore Beyond the El” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti is about a young boy’s childhood passing by too soon and is similar to the song, “Wake me up when September ends” by Green Day. The first few lines of the poem are indented to convey the message that the boy “fell in love with unreality”. The “unreality” represents the imagination of a child, which is evident as the “Jellybeans GLOWED in the semi-gloom of that September afternoon”. Further in the poem the words are closer towards the edge of the page which represent the child coming back to reality. When the child snaps out of the unreality we’re told that “Outside the leaves were falling as they died”, which is symbolic for a childhood ending. Next, a girl enters and “Her BREASTS were breathless in the little room”. “Breasts” is a mature word which shows that the boy is growing up. Ferlinghetti has emphasised the quick transition by making the leaves cry “Too soon!” Almost every person throughout the ages will have experienced that sudden moment when their childhood ended. Ferlinghetti is saying that you should savour the wonder and delight of your childhood because in the blink of an eye it will be gone forever and that love is not something to rush
Is it because you’re stuck in a society that has a messed up perception of good physique? Believe it or not society’s perception can influence you more than you know. Take, for example, the public glorification of WW1 and how many young men became soldiers in order to be heroes. Wilfred Owen was an English poet and soldier in this time, and his poem “Futility” contrasted the public perception of war. Owen’s message is that war is futile (pointless) as so many young lives are lost, and is similar to the song “Some nights” by Fun. The first stanza is very gentle and personifies the sun as a Godly figure as “Gently its touch awoke him” and the words “fields unsown” as well as the use of para rhymes clearly represent the half-life of the young soldier. The warm touch of the sun is contrasted with the cold of the snow, representing life and death. The coldness of death has been conveyed through assonance such as “the clays of a cold star”. Owen’s use of biblical imagery, by referring to man as clay, emphasises his frustration with death as he protests “Was it for this the clay grew tall?” Today, with the help of social media, public perceptions can so easily influence you. Just remember that those perceptions are not always a reflection of reality. As ISIL infiltrate the media with their hunger for death, remember that war is nothing more than a waste of precious lives, lives that cannot and will not be returned once they are