America Yusef Komunyakaa By Ginsberg

War: Fighting a Never Ending Battle

War has a way of changing the mentality of many soldiers. Whether you are at war for your country or at war in society, sometimes it may seem like your fighting a never ending battle. In Allen Ginsberg’s poem “America” and in Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Facing It”, they talk about war and what they were facing at that moment in time. Ginsberg and Yusef both have different attitudes about war and their country. These poets share many similarities in their poems, but yet they also have many differences as well

In Allen Ginsberg’s poem “America”, he tells readers how much hate he has towards America. He starts his poem off by setting an enervated mood for the poem and addresses America by saying, “America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing” (Line1). At the beginning Ginsberg expresses how worthless he is and because of how everything is going in America, he can never be in the right state of mind. He then changed the mood to being angry, when he starts asking questions about the war. …Throughout the poem Ginsberg rambles about America abandoning its values and it not being what it promised to be. The author criticizes America when he asks, “When will you be worthy of your million

Trotskyites? America why are your libraries full of tears?” (11-12). I feel that he meant that America’s timeline had been full of a lot of bloodshed. Ginsberg’s continues ranting about the bad things happening in America, and then realizes that he is America. Towards the end, Ginsberg thought joining the war would help make a difference. But because he was not qualified, he realized that he would have to make a difference the hard way.
In Ginsberg’s poem, his attitude seems as if he was angry with America. It seemed as if he was talking directly to America and he had a lot to say to. He wanted readers to see that America was not as perfect as they seemed to be and America had its problems and flaws just like any other country did. He wanted America to see what it was doing to the country before it was too late. He also believed that America did not want to go to war but that America was driven to war by fear of another country. He believed that those countries were jealous of what the Americans have and wanted it for themselves. Communism was brought up a lot through Ginsberg’s poem.
Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Facing it”, talks about his experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Komunyakaa, Speaks on the haunting memories that appeared when he visited the Vietnam Veterans memorial. He starts off his poem by trying to be as hard as a stone and showing no emotions, but eventually begins crying. After all he is human. Whenever Komunyakaa looks at the memorial wall he is frightened by his past but when he turns away he is more at ease. Komunyakaa skims through the 58,022 names of people who had lost their lives and was “half-Expecting” to find his name on the list. It seemed as if Komunyakaa was wondering why he survived the war instead of dying. He started recollecting a memory of someone of he knew from the war that had died.
Komunyakaa does not really show any attitude towards his country. He mainly directs his feelings toward his recollection of the past. He is lost deeply in his thoughts and cannot help but dwell in the past, even for a moment.
Ginsberg and Komunyakaa are similar because they have written a poem on themselves going through some kind of war. Although Ginsberg was not in an actual war he felt like he was fighting a war with his country, America. Komunyakaa was a veteran that had been done with fighting the Cold War. Although his fight was a long time ago, mentally he was still in that same war. Both Ginsberg and Komunyakaa are angry about something that happened. Ginsberg is mad at America for all of the promises that made and are not delivering. Komunyakaa is having survivals guilt because he feel that he should have died and his name should have of been one of the names that were on the memorial wall.
Although both Ginsberg and Komunyakaa have many similarities both poets differ in many ways.

Ginsberg was not qualified for war but Komunyakaa was. Ginsberg’s poem is directed to America and Komunyakaa’s poem is directed to his memory of being at war. According to Ginsberg’s poem “America”, he is an angry writer that wanted people to hear him out. He did not care if others had anything negative to say about what he had to say just as long as they listened. Komunyakaa on the other hand, was a man that wanted to be strong when facing his reality. In Konunyakaa’s poem “Facing It”, he seemed like a sad person who couldn’t help but think about the people who died in war. It seems as if he was living with some sort of sorrow, for surviving the

war.
War can happen at any time in life. It is your choice to fight for or against what you believe in. In

They both were fighting a war for their country