Allen Ginsberg

A Ghost May Come

A Ghost May Come - meaning Summary

Objects as Condensed Life

The speaker contemplates simple objects on a table as condensed traces of life. A clock’s ticking reduces existence to measurement, a lamp suggests form and the last attempts at speech, and a carved Mexican knife with an eagle-head handle hints at memory, playfulness and cultural relic. The catalogue of items turns domestic detail into a meditation on mortality, presence and the ways objects hold personal and symbolic meaning.

Read Complete Analyses

Elements on my table — the clock. All life reduced to this — its tick. Dusty’s modern lamp, all shape, space and curve. Last attempts at speech. And the carved serpentine knife of Mexico, with the childish eagle head on the handle.

New York, December 30, 1951
default user
PoetryVerse just now

Feel free to be first to leave comment.

8/2200 - 0