Like some of you guys, I too was marginally disturbed by this poem. It was very much unlike any other poem I had ever written. Even after reading it, I was still confused on some of the topics the poem discussed (Moloch, Rockland, etc.). So to get some insight I looked on wikipedia what some of these ideas were.
I think the first stanza shows America's culture to leave its imperialistic, military lock through crude and vulgar actions, the second stanza showing America's grip on the people, and the third stanza showing a slightly more bright future for America.
As this poem was being written in the 1950's many changes were going through America, primarily the baby boomer movement. Also notable was America's economic and technological boom in the shadow of the second world war. This made the very sexual nature of the first section very counter-cultural to what typical American life was. In its weaning stages, rock and roll appeared on America's radar primarily through Elvis causing a rift between the conservative parents and their "rebellious" teenagers, but even this movement would not have accept such lines as being "f'ed in the ass". I think, the line"who bit detectives in the neck and shrieked with delight in policecars for committing no crime" shows the nature of the people. they do want their established penal system to have a choke hold on their lives. However, rather than resorting to mature ways of "fighting the system", they adopt an, although juvenile, very perverted rebellion against their overlords.
In response to Ben, I think the line about "hydrotherapy, psychotherapy occupational therapy pingpong & amnesia" is a little out of place. However, these are all treatments for mental patients (maybe a possible allusion to Rockland, the hypothetical mental institution). And like the citizens taking extreme (hydrotherapy, psychotherapy) measures to the institutions over them, they also are juvenile (the pingpong) in their methods.
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