The Poet as Activist: Chronotopes of San Francisco in the Poetry of Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The impact of one’s economic, cultural and political contributions is vital to a city’s welfare. Activism, however, is a crucial component of community life, which has determined the real meaning of individual freedom through the efforts of the social actors of the last century. In this respect, the literary texts of the Beat Generation thoroughly portray the relation between time and space and the way in which it is connected to social action. From a geocritical approach, the choronotopes found in the poetry of Lawrence Ferlinghetti offer the reader an authentic taste of San Francisco during the second half of the twentieth century as well as the Beats’ perspective on one’s emergence and evolution in the metropolis during the post-war era. Space and time foster the evolution of group identity and, in the same time, they shape the development of social and political endeavours. This research focuses on the intersections between time, people, and creative places and seeks to portray the city as a sociocultural construct from the point of view of a poet and an activist.


Introduction
The Beat Generation writings often portray the city through the lens of the activist.
San Francisco, being a Beat hub itself, is described in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poems through the use of chronotopes that define the second half of the twentieth century and the youth movements at the time. Descriptions of time-space, which depict the sociocultural dimension of communities in different eras and locations, can be understood through Mikhail Bakhtin's "chronotope", coined in his The Dialogic Imagination (1975).
As Bakhtin notes, "we will give the name chronotope (literally, 'time space') to the intrinsic 41 connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 84). An analysis of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's works reveals that the aesthetics of time-space used may offer new understandings of temporality and the corresponding social reactions of the post-war era in the metropolis. The social and cultural challenges of the city of San Francisco at mid-century are recurrent in Ferlinghetti's works and they position the poet in the shoes of the activist.
Manuel Castells asks a series of questions in his book, The City and the Grassroots (1983), when thinking about the relation between time, places and subcultures: "What are the cultural themes of the community, the forms of its social organization, the waving flags of its political battles?" (Castells, 1983, p. 139). Time and space foster the development of group identity and, at the same time, they are shaped by social, cultural, and political endeavours.
As Bakhtin further notes, "time, as it were, thickens, takes on flesh, becomes artistically visible; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time, plot, and history. This intersection of axes and fusion of indicators characterizes the artistic chronotope" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 84). Time is viewed as the fourth dimension of space, as space modifies and transforms throughout time. The symbolic meaning of certain places may become emblematic for a time period. In this regard, San Francisco remains emblematic for the liberation movements that started post-war and serves as an image of freedom at a time of conformity.
Beat poetry aims at offering the society a different way of life and an alternative mindset.
In this respect, one can interpret such poetry as an example of activism and perceive the poet as an activist. Ferlinghetti's work reflects on his own personal experiences and offers the readers an honest representation of his life and of the world that surrounds him.
The main theme in Beat poetry is the decay of the world due to shallowness, hate, urban development, corruption, unfairness, discrimination, and pollution. These motifs appear in Ferlinghetti's poetry and, thus, translate as desperate "howls" for a better change. It is the requests expressed by the young generation of the 1950s that attempted to explain, through their poetry, that people are different and that they cannot fit into the same social system.

Environmental Activism, Animal Rights and Ferlinghetti's 'Frisco'
Social protest in large cities is usually a consequence of the dysfunctionalities of the city management. Class is one factor that installs tension among citizens, and lack of support and integration of the lower classes is many times what lies as the root cause of why people try to disobey the system. While New York, another important Beat Generation hub, has a long history of multicultural and economic tensions, which is portrayed in the work of Allen Ginsberg, a Beat poet himself, San Francisco in the 1950s was seen as a possibility to a better lifestyle and a more inclusive way of thinking. Lawrence Ferlinghetti makes public his concerns about the future of the city in his Inaugural Address as San Francisco Poet Laureate and makes reference to that week's San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper, which showed the results of a survey about the city's atmosphere: "it reveals a city undergoing a radical transformation-from a diverse metropolis that welcomed immigrants and refugees from around the world to a homogeneous, wealthy enclave" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 9). Ferlinghetti's concerns about the city he had been living in for seventy years until his death in 2021 reinforced the Beat thought, which aimed at facilitating an alternative lifestyle and the peaceful inclusion of people with fewer opportunities, who are usually marginalized in large cities. While technological development made the city richer and an exciting touristic destination, the middle-and lower-class citizens suffered of being alienated by the rise of capitalism. Ferlinghetti captures the city's environment and atmosphere through his poems as he observes the changes that happen and offers his perspective as a citizen, artist, entrepreneur, and Beat poet. Lawrence Ferlinghetti is known as an environmentalist, and his eco-poetry did not seek to raise awareness only on issues related to nature, but also to animal protection.
In his poem "DOG", the author maps the city from the point of view of a stray dog, which comes across different spaces and people: The dog trots freely in the street and sees reality and the things he sees are bigger than himself and the things he sees are his reality

Moons on trees
The dog trots freely thru the street (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 37) Just like the Beat writings, the dog's journey in Ferlinghetti's poem creates a cartography that shows the authentic San Francisco. The use of chronotopes such as "the street" offers the reader "his reality," which is the way in which the dog encounters it. In the poem, we follow the dog through the city and imagine the built-in environment, which maps the city and creates the chronotope of San Francisco: Chinatown, the San Francisco Meat Market, Romeo Ravioli Factory, and Coit's Tower.
While the dog takes us through its city route, it also takes us through a cultural and political journey. The poem could also reflect the author's own thoughts, while the dog may represent Ferlinghetti himself, as he was an underdog of the society, as all Beats were.
Therefore, the use of chronotopes in the poem compels the reader to believe that the dog is a simple and innocent character and influences the audience to rediscover the city from the point of view of the dog. The use of "Drunks in doorways," or "cats and cigars," shows that the dog is strolling around a poor neighbourhood and the reader may empathize with the dog's precarious situation. The dog "doesn't hate cops," "he merely has no use for them," and "he's not afraid of Congressman Doyle," as he is " just another fire hydrant for him" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 38). The poetic voice expresses disappointment with the city's authority, as neither policemen nor authority seem to make a change in the city.
The audience tends to rely on the dog's perspective on what is happening, as it is "a sad young dog," and "a serious dog": a real live democratic dog engaged in real free enterprise with something to say about ontology with something to say about reality and how to see it and how to hear it (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 39) Through his choice of words, Ferlinghetti presents the political tensions of the 1950s in San Francisco and tries to convince the reader that the underdogs of the society are struggling for a better change.
Ferlinghetti's concern with animal protection is portrayed as well in his 1974 poem, "Rough Song of Animals Dying," which serves as a desperate cry for people to become aware of the existing animal cruelty everywhere in the world:  (Ferlinghetti, 1988, p. 121) Through the dark images of animals suffering and dying, the poetic voice urges people to empathize and invites them to militate for animal rights. Environmentalism started to take shape as a political movement in the 1960s, being encouraged by various parallel movements such as the Anti-War, the Civil Rights and the Second-Wave Feminism.
However, the movement became popular at large scales in the 1970s, when Earth Day takes place for the first time (22 April 1970), coordinated by the environmental advocate Denis Hayes (Lewis, 1990, p. 13). The 1970s also mark an increase in the environmentalists' concern with toxicity and pollution, which pushed President Richard M. Nixon to sign the Water Quality Improvement Act among other amendments that followed the environmental political agenda at the time (Chow, 2020, p. 11 (Ferlinghetti, 1988, p. 121) The apocalyptic image of the Earth that Ferlinghetti details is not only applicable for the situation of the 1970s, but it is still very relevant for today's need for awareness.  (Ferlinghetti, 1988, p. 121) The cartography of animals dying that the poet creates emphasizes the fact that animal rights is a global problem and that globalization itself may be one of the factors that fuelled animal cruelty world-wide: "bearded blackmarketeers/ who afterwards ride around Singapore/ in German limousines" (Ferlinghetti, 1988, p. 121). Besides using animals as a resource for clothing, alimentation, drug testing, labour and entertainment, the pollution caused by industrial waste and the expansion of unsustainable infrastructures led to animal cruelty and extinction as well. This eco-poem is an example of activism sustained by the author as it aims to educate its readers about existing problems of the community, be it the city, the country, or the world.

Interculturality in San Francisco
Besides environmental awareness, another common theme in Ferlinghetti's poetry is the interculturality found in San Francisco. The city consists of a big Chinese community, and the poet portrays that in "The Great Chinese Dragon": And the great Chinese dragon passing thru the Golden Gate spouting streams of water like a string of fireboats then broke loose somewhere near China Camp gulped down a hundred Chinese seamen and forthwith ate all the shrimp in San Francisco Bay (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 49) Ferlinghetti observes the Chinese New Year parade and imagines the journey of the inflatable dragon balloon through the city. He thinks about the creature being "forever after confined/ in a Chinatown basement and ever since allowed out only for/ Chinese New Year's parades and other Unamerican demonstrations" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 49 46 Therefore, the dragon, the symbol of power, good luck and of the Chinese culture in general, became suppressed by America and only for one day is allowed free in the city.
This can be interpreted as the author's allusion to the fact that the Chinese community has been oppressed by the dominant white society.
The author takes us on another journey in San Francisco, the dragon serving as  (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 34) The church of Saint Francis, which dates as early as the 1800s, is part of the architectural and cultural heritage of San Francisco and, thus, a symbol of the city, whose name was inspired by the same saint. Ferlinghetti's use of temporal and spatial aesthetics depicts the multicultural sphere of the city, as the church is a legacy for its Italian community.

San Francisco's multicultural background is also depicted in "Great American Waterfront
Poem," where the readers are exposed to several minorities living in San Francisco: "Filipino fishermen," "Hawaiians in baseball caps," "Puerto Ricans with pile-worms in tincans," "Old capital N Negroes with catfish," "An Arab on the bridge his turban flying," "thick Norwegian accent," and "The Last of the Mohicans" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 55-57).
In the poem, Ferlinghetti observes the passers-by and recalls memories from his past that are linked to the city: "The first poem I ever wrote in San Francisco twenty years ago," Francisco that the readers may perceive: "asleep in the sun," "fog lifting the sun the sun burning through," "bright steamers," "this waterfront of existence," "A great view," "opposite Alcatraz by the thousand fishing boats nested in green thick water," "The sea a green god," "morning October sun," "the tracks embedded in asphalt," and "the Bank of America towering over" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 55-58). The repeated use of words related to sun, sea, and green makes one imagine a relaxing atmosphere and a place of prosperity and well-being. Moreover, the poetic voice describes his encounters with various people of various ethnicities, which makes the city look very cosmopolitan, dynamic and inclusive.
As the author lures the reader to fancy the city, he also begins and ends the poem with his disappointment about the city's imperfections and leaves an open ending to the poem in order to install a sense of hope for the future of the city. The poet enumerates various locations where he spent most of his "divorce of civilization in and out waterfront hangouts" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 55). The Beats used to attend this kind of public spaces as an attempt to escape the social pressure of the society at the time. The fact that the poetic voice mentions that he "wouldn't be back until they tore down the Embarcadero Freeway along with the rest of petroleum civilization" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 55) proves the author's involvement in environmental issues and his opinion on the destructive effects of technology and development over nature and cultural heritage. The author predicts this tension between nature and the "sky-highway," Embarcadero Freeway, as thirteen years after writing the poem, the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake destroys it.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti rebuilds the city of San Francisco in his poems, from his Beat point of view, through the use of chronotopes that refer to the outcasts of the city and their daily experiences. He resonates with these outsiders and feels as part of a minority himself, expressing a sense of love for the city that serves as his home as well as frustration with its shortcomings. Inequality, lack of social inclusion, and pollution are three issues that Ferlinghetti fought for through his work and, therefore, he gave a voice to those silenced by the authority and by the capitalist trends.
In order to influence the reader to understand and sympathize with these causes and to see the city at mid-century the way he does, the author builds the chronotope of San Francisco seen as the city of social pariahs, in a world where they seem to be powerless in the face of industrial and corporative progression.

Conclusion
By analysing the city of San Francisco at mid-twentieth century, through spatial and temporal aesthetics, as depicted by the work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, this study proves that the author, together with the Beat Generation group, faced various challenges during the Golden Age in order to affirm themselves and to resist the social pressure of traditionalist values.
Ferlinghetti can be considered an activist who fights, through his works, against the governmental and capitalist forces. His poems have a sense of both hope and decay: the writer emphasizes the flaws of society, such as unintegrated minorities and pollution, but also alludes that there is hope for a better fate for America. The poetic voice is conveyed as the voice of the social underdog; that way, the reader is offered an image of the outcasts' side of the city, which shows the margins of rich urban spaces and a life that aims at surviving more than enjoying.
San Francisco is often presented through images of nature, hills and water. The Beat poems also have the role of immortalizing social realities just the way they are. Ferlinghetti takes the reader on a tour of the city, as seen by a dog that "is just about to have his picture taken" (Ferlinghetti, 2003, p. 37). He resonates with this stray urban animal that walks freely through the city, being beaten from one street to another, seen by the society as unimportant and as dangerous for the wellbeing of the collective. Therefore, Ferlinghetti can be considered a contemporary underground "flâneur" who documents the city from the perspective of those marginalized.
His poetry, as well as the literary works of other authors that he published through City Lights, follow a political agenda which fosters non-violent protest, pacifism and ecology: "in addition to a political commitment that blended anarchism and ecology-he loathed the motor car, calling it 'the infernal combustion engine'" (Campbell, 2021, p. 1).
Ferlinghetti also protested for social cohesion and believed in the importance of a strong, united community. He was enrolled in the Second World War and saw Hiroshima a few weeks after the bomb, which determined him to become a pacifist: "there was just three square miles of mulch with human hair and bones sticking out … blackened unrecognisable shapes sticking up on the horizon, teacups full of flesh" (Saunders, 2019, p. 13). The horrors of the war witnessed by Ferlinghetti encouraged him to dedicate his artistic and literary work to fighting authority, conventions, animal cruelty, war and pollution. His City Lights Book Store has been a place of inspiration and encouragement for the literary scene and stands as a political statement which keeps Ferlinghetti's philosophy about the world still present and influential in San Francisco.