Ginsberg writes about modern-day America and himself within it, looking for meaning in trivial, everyday situations such as a supermarket, as a symbol of Americanness. His free verse belongs to the poetic tradition started by Whitman, who is officially recognized as Ginsberg's predecessor and spiritual father in this poem. Ginsberg roams through the supermarket and the L.A. streets, and the free verse depicts exactly that - spontaneous flow of images, the unrestrained melody of the verse, which isn't induced by rhymes and meter, but by the meanings of the trivialities that Ginsberg encounters on his way.
