In Golden Gate Park That Day (1958). Summary and Description

This poem is set in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It describes part of a day that an older couple spends at the park but is not simply a straightforward story about two elderly people. The poem was written in the 1950s, at a time when the so-called counterculture was beginning in America, a growing movement that was dissatisfied with the status quo in this country. The couple, as Ferlinghetti describes them, seem to be members of that culture, or at least two people who do not seem typical of elderly people of the 1950s.

Ferlinghetti tells us in the opening lines that “a man and his wife were coming along / thru the enormous meadow which was the meadow of the world” (ll. 1-2). The “meadow of the world” to which Ferlinghetti refers could imply many things. It could be that, as is often the case with the elderly, Ferlinghetti is implying their world has shrunk and that they have relatively simple needs, as evidenced by the fact that they are carrying only a “beat-up flute” and “grapes.” It could also be that the park in which the poem is set is either a metaphor for the entire world or a microcosm of it. As the poem progresses, the park appears as a kind of paradise: “a very still spot where the trees dreamed / and seemed to have been waiting thru all time for them” (ll. 9-10).

Initially, then, Ferlinghetti appears to be painting an engaging picture of a couple taking their ease among the pastoral pleasures of the park. However, as the poem progresses, we encounter increasingly troubling language. The speaker notes, for example, that the couple sat down on the grass “without looking at each other” and repeats that same phrase one line later when telling us that they ate oranges without looking at one another as well. Later, the man falls asleep without saying anything to his wife, and the wife is left to watch the birds flying in the air. After the man is asleep, the speaker tells us the wife “lay there looking up at nothing” as if she feels lost and disconnected not only from her spouse but also from the world. The last image of the poem is the wife lying on the grass, fingering the old flute, and finally looking over at her husband.

This is not, however, a look of love or affection. The speaker notes that she looks at him “without any particular expression except a certain awful look / of terrible depression” (ll. 21-22). The two, the speaker seems to be saying, feel lost and disconnected, as if the hopes they had both for their relationship and for their lives are dashed, ending in disappointment. In this poem, Ferlinghetti laments the loss of both individual happiness and romantic love. It is implied that the couple has been together for a long time. The fact that they no longer look at each other indicates their feelings of alienation and unhappiness, perhaps not just about the way their relationship has turned out, but also at the way the world has. In this sense, “Golden Gate Park” can be read as a fallen paradise.

For Discussion or Writing
1. Late in the poem, the speaker mentions that the birds the old woman sees may be “questioning existence” or “trying to recall something forgotten.” How do those descriptions of the birds relate to the poem’s theme? What forgotten thing might the birds be trying to recall?

2. Compare this poem to “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats. How are the moods of the poems similar? How do the settings in each poem affect the speakers’ mood or tone of voice?