The Poem to Write About

     Poem number 20, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in his book, A Coney Island of the Mind, is quite a beautiful masterpiece. Ferlinghetti perfectly uses rhyme in the poem to make it flow and connect ideas together in ways that may not have been previously imagined. Besides that, however, he uses the beautiful imagery of a candy store, with its many colors and inviting sights, to depict a childish innocence, and the exact moment it disappeared. 

    The first few lines of the poem invite the reader into the innocence of a boy who goes to a candy store. The reader is given visions of jellybeans that "glowed in the semi-gloom" as well as licorice sticks, tootsie rolls, and "Oh Boy Gum." It seems like a paradise for a child, when all they ever wanted was something sweet to make them happy.  After that last line about the gum, however, the visions of the candy die away like the dying leaves when the boy sees the girl walk in. The final lines of the poem, "Outside the leaves were falling / and they cried / Too soon! Too soon!" seem to echo the sorrow of how the boy no longer has that child-like innocence.

    Ferlinghetti does a wonderful job encapsulating that turning point in a child's life where he reaches the point of no return. Although the idea is never explicitly stated, its meaning is quite clear in the words and images. Overall, however, the poem still retains a sense of innocence as it is depicting a child. It can also be quite nostalgic in a way, reminding us of the times we first fell in love and reached our own turning points from childish innocence. 

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