Intro
Forget Shakespeare and his sonnets. Leave Robert Frosty out to freeze. The noble art form of poetry gets a major shakeup from this member of the "Beat Generation," a crowd that rallied against materialism and formalism and instead engaged in experimentation (be it with drugs or literary forms) and frank explorations of the human condition. In "America," Ginsberg addresses the home of the free and the land of the brave like a real person, and makes it obvious that he's none too happy about the current state of affairs.
Despite its formal experimentation, the poem isn't just an exercise in wordplay or an attempt to look rebellious. That makes it perfect for cultural studies: the theory doesn't conform to boundaries between high and low culture or restrict itself to analyzing classical texts. Good news Ginsberg: "America" is a far cry from the flowery lyricism that the term "poetry" evokes, but it's a potent commentary on modern American culture.
In other words, contrary to that old notion of the "American Dream," Ginsberg's poem is more like a frenzied nightmare where everything is just a little bit off (remember Willy Wonka?). To get an idea of his attitude toward America, imagine a parent who's angry with their bratty kid: underneath that anger there's usually also a sense that they care about the child, however naughty.
This is the sort of vibe that runs throughout "America": the narrator is angry because this is his country and he feels a connection to it. You can even reverse the parent/child role in the sense that he feels like his motherland, or fatherland, has let him down.
Quote
I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.
Analysis
Throughout the poem, Ginsberg runs through a scad of images he associates with America—the atomic bomb, media propaganda, constant newspaper stories about murder and scare stories about the big bad Russians, and so on—and America pinning blame anywhere but on home turf. Criticism of the media comes front-and-center in the above passage, with Ginsberg mirroring some typical cultural studies views on how pervasive and mind-control-y it tends to be.
In specific, Ginsberg comments on the role the media plays in modern life and the way it shapes the cultural landscape. The narrator is "obsessed" by Time Magazine and the "serious" people it depicts. Though he claims to be alone in not being serious, is the media really entitled to the position of authority it claims? The narrator can't help but question some of its messages, even in the absurdist way that he fills the page.
Ironically, then, the narrator is serious, even if he's slightly off-kilter. He reiterates this later in the poem when, responding to what he's seeing on TV, he asks America whether the TV's take is gospel and this is really how things are in the world. Ginsberg's mocking, satirical attitude doesn't hide too deep below the surface—what he's doing is emphasizing this issue via satire, even while viewing it as a serious matter.
The narrator's conclusion in this passage is that he is America and is talking to himself again. Makes total sense, right? This adds to the sense of confusion and absurdity, while also reiterating the narrator's connection to the country that's made him so cynical.
Mental and moral relationship to society? Role of the mass media? Connection between individual and the group? In the cultural studies world, that poem is ripe for the pickin'.