European Poems & Transitions: Over All the Obscene Boundaries

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

These poems on European themes by the author of  Her  (his Paris novel) and the enduring  A Coney Island of the Mind  were mostly written during the last seven years and, in the poet’s words, are “transformations and transitions looking westward to America and beyond.” Flowing from France to Italy to the Netherlands, on to Germany, back to France, and finally toward America, they follow Ferlinghetti’s own recent journeying. The poems progress geographically and chronologically with a cohesive development of ideas and themes. In part he plays off T. S. Eliot’s “summarizing the past by theft and allusion” but captures the present as well in fleeting incidents of daily experience, and, in his powerful concluding poem “History of the A TV Docu-drama,” envisions a possible nuclear future. It is a view of our time and of where we are in it, seen by an eagle eye, told in Ferlinghetti’s inimitable everyman’s voice.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

A prominent voice of the wide-open poetry movement that began in the 1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has written poetry, translation, fiction, theater, art criticism, film narration, and essays. Often concerned with politics and social issues, Ferlinghetti’s poetry countered the literary elite's definition of art and the artist's role in the world. Though imbued with the commonplace, his poetry cannot be simply described as polemic or personal protest, for it stands on his craftsmanship, thematics, and grounding in tradition.

Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919, son of Carlo Ferlinghetti who was from the province of Brescia and Clemence Albertine Mendes-Monsanto. Following his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a ship's commander. He received a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1947 and a Doctorate de l’Université de Paris (Sorbonne) in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, when he settled in San Francisco, he taught French in an adult education program, painted, and wrote art criticism. In 1953, with Peter D. Martin (son of Carlo Tresca) he founded City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country, and by 1955 he had launched the City Lights publishing house.

The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an international, dissident ferment. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges, and the trial that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.

Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world, from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. He has been associated with the international Fluxus movement through the Archivio Francesco Conz in Verona. He has toured Italy, giving poetry readings in Roma, Napoli, Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Verona, Brescia, Cagliari, Torino, Venezia, and Sicilia. He won the Premio Taormino in 1973, and since then has been awarded the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio Cavour. among others. He is published in Italy by Oscar Mondadori, City Lights Italia, and Minimum Fax. He was instrumental in arranging extensive poetry tours in Italy produced by City Lights Italia in Firenze. He has translated from the italian Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Poemi Romani, which is published by City Lights Books. In San Francisco, his work can regularly be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery at 77 Geary Street.

Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the U.S. It has been translated into nine languages, and there are nearly 1,000,000 copies in print. The author of poetry, plays, fiction, art criticism, and essays, he has a dozen books currently in print in the U.S., and his work has been translated in many countries and in many languages. His most recent books are A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), and Americus Book I (2004) published by New Directions.

He has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award, the BABRA Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s first poet laureate.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection Lawrence Ferlinghetti takes the reader with him on a long, strange trip, through the old Europe of his youth, into the atomic new age of America, traversing through the yellowed pages of time as they were immortalized by literary greats like Eliot, Proust and Dante. As always with Ferlinghetti (at least for me), the imagery is stunning, though not so much as one finds in his earlier collections of poetry; as the work returns to the setting of the new, modern America one gets a taste of the Ferlinghetti who would later write "Time of Useful Consciousness," his latest collection. These works are more political than many of his early works. And his voice here is clearer than in many of his 1960s works, still filled with symbolism, but not so tangled in it.

As a poet, Ferlinghetti is one who almost always has the ability to make me feel and to enter into his world. His imagery takes me to the rainy streets of Paris as he found them in the 1970s and 80s, with "solidified nostalgia," and as they were in his twenties ("Paris in the Rain 1898/only it is not 1898/It is 1948/a slight juggling of numbers/and no horse carriages/but the same eternal feeling/sad and elated/walking in Paris in the rain"; a city that is a "floating dream/a great stone ship adrift/made of dusk and dawn and darkness"), to Italy (where "Some church nearby/is raising dust with its bells"), to the Netherlands, to memories of his boyhood.

Reflecting back on the modern America, Ferlinghetti's final poem in this collection, "History of the World: A TV Docu-Drama" is filled with chilling imagery of a "country [that] is electrified," in which "Civilization beats out Eros/and Proust perishes," in which "paranoia floods the world" as "Hunger persists" and "Love lurches on." Much as we find in his "Time of Useful Consciousness," this is a warning of the direction civilization is heading. Much like Corso, Ginsberg, Dylan and so many others of the period, Ferlinghetti is also a product of the atom bomb-fueled generation, a generation in fear of the threat of the madness of mutually-assured destruction.

This work is a nice transition from the early Ferlinghetti to the later Ferlinghetti, filled with haunting imagery, references to pop culture, borrowing from the literary works of other poets and writers. It contains many great poems, but among my favorites are the last one ("History of the World"), "Seeing a Woman as in a Painting by Berthe Morisot," "Women in Rooms," "A Fable of the So-Called Birds" and the very touching piece, "The Photo of Emily." This is not Ferlinghetti's best, but it is an accessible and enjoyable work with a great deal to offer to readers, a work that can make one laugh, cry and think as we become lost in the world painted by the poet's words.

[Emanuela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ferlinghetti's poetic collection are a cultural bridge between American travellers and European daily life. As a Beat poet traversing Europe, he captures the disorienting yet illuminating experience of encountering unfamiliar rituals and social codes.
He sits in the corner of a café or on a bench in a square, observing life and people as they pass. He recounts what he sees, weaving poetic details into his words, orchestrating them into a delicate, transporting melody.
Open this book and embark on a journey across Europe through Ferlinghetti’s eyes! With his sharp poetic vision he captures the essence of cities, the pulse of streets, and the fleeting moments that define a place. From the cafés of Paris to the back alleys of Rome, his words paint a landscape of movement, nostalgia, and discovery. Each page invites you to wander alongside him, seeing the old continent not as a static postcard but as a living, breathing tapestry of cultures, art, and rebellion.

find my virtual on Substack: https://emanuelab.substack.com/p/the-...

[Kelly D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first half better than the second half.

[Carrie Cantalupo-Sharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forgot how much I like his poetry - though some is overly dramatic and repetitive and rambling. In this collection my faves were set in Italy. pgs: 77, 78, 80, 82, 83, 110. And 51+

[Michael Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many years ago, I read some beat poets and decided, probably unfairly, that I liked Ferlinghetti's Coney Island of the Mind and Starting From San Francisco better than most. So it wasn't hard to pick up this book when visiting City Lights in San Francisco last month. Oddly, I didn't like this one as much as I remember liking his early stuff. My tastes have obviously changed. But his cadence is still rocking and the images he creates for me are still strong. If you like good poetry, you can do much worse than this.

[Rachael Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been really enjoying Ferlinghetti's poetry lately but this wasn't my favorite. I had a hard time with the European scenery and some poems were even left in French. Still, he is quickly becoming one of my favorite poets.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really good, except for the poems in other languages which I can't read. Well I suppose they might be really good too, but how would I know?

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great poetry - I definitely recommend this!