Movement Background: The Beats Period evolved in the 1940s in New York City and on the west coast, although San Francisco became the heart of the movement in the early 1950s. The end of World War 2 made poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Synder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso question politics and culture. These poets became known as the Beat Generation, a group of writers interested in changing conventional writing. They were also closely intertwined with poets of the San Francisco Renassiance.
Poetry Analysis: Lawrence Ferlinghetti writes the poem "Dog". In the poem he mentions a dog which symbolizes an ordinary man going on about his life. In the first part he focuses on what the dog sees when he states, "Drunks in doorways/
Moons on trees". Then in the next part he focuses on how the dog feels and think when the author states, "He doesn't hate cops/
He merely has no use for them" and he also states, "He would rather eat a tender cow/
than a tough policeman". The author shows how similar a man's life is to a dog life by talking about what the animal sees. In the poem the author points out, "the things he sees/are bigger than himself/and, the things he sees are his reality, and the things he sees/ are smaller than himself." Lawrence repeats "things he sees" to show us that men are always seeing things can be some large challenges and some can be small challenges in our lives. Then the author states' "He doesn't hate cops/He merely has no use for them/and he goes past them." This explains how the dog feels and thinks about the community. Then he establishes that the dog/man would rather eat a tender cow than a tough policeman. This points out that he would like to take the easy way out then to face the challenge head on.
Moons on trees". Then in the next part he focuses on how the dog feels and think when the author states, "He doesn't hate cops/
He merely has no use for them" and he also states, "He would rather eat a tender cow/
than a tough policeman". The author shows how similar a man's life is to a dog life by talking about what the animal sees. In the poem the author points out, "the things he sees/are bigger than himself/and, the things he sees are his reality, and the things he sees/ are smaller than himself." Lawrence repeats "things he sees" to show us that men are always seeing things can be some large challenges and some can be small challenges in our lives. Then the author states' "He doesn't hate cops/He merely has no use for them/and he goes past them." This explains how the dog feels and thinks about the community. Then he establishes that the dog/man would rather eat a tender cow than a tough policeman. This points out that he would like to take the easy way out then to face the challenge head on.
Literary Devices: The poem contains multiple literary devices. There are two literary devices in which I would like to look into which is imagery and alliteration, let's start with imagery. In the poem the author states, "The dog trots freely thru the street and the things he sees are smaller than himself/Fish on newsprint/Ants in holes/Chickens in Chinatown windows." The author tells what the dog sees and where he sees him at to paint a better picture of what is in the community. The other device used is when the author states, "chicken in Chinatown windows." The repetition of the c and I think it wasn't put there personally but it painted a better picture of what was going on.