The American Way Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF EGEGEHIGJIGKELGMNOPM QLLG DLEBRESTTUEVEWWEIXYI I ZBA2A2IDIB2DC2XD2E2R RF2BLG2VA2E2XBH2BXI2 J2OBTRBIDDK2L2K2I2M2 N2BCO2P2Q2DDB2LR2 R2JS2LDT2Q2U2DBBH2DT EIV2V2W2LEX2DBX2TLDD DY2LZ2CBI2TX2IEMDMIL DBA3BILB3LX2LXXRIBDR DC3DD3RB2DA2LOR EIDDDIBE3 IDLDIDIDIRL

A
I am a great AmericanB
I am almost nationalistic about itC
I love America like a madnessD
But I am afraid to return to AmericaE
I'm even afraid to go into the American ExpressF
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-
-
They are frankensteining Christ in AmericaE
in their Sunday campaignsG
They are putting the fear of Christ in AmericaE
under their tents in their Sunday campaignsG
They are driving old ladies mad with Christ in AmericaE
They are televising the gift of healing and the fear of hellH
in America under their tents in their SundayI
campaignsG
They are leaving their tents and are bringing their ChristJ
to the stadiums of America in their SundayI
campaignsG
They are asking for a full house an all get outK
for their Christ in the stadiums of AmericaE
They are getting them in their Sunday and SaturdayL
campaignsG
They are asking them to come forward and fall on theirM
kneesN
because they are all guilty and they are comingO
forwardP
in guilt and are falling on their knees weeping theirM
guiltQ
begging to be saved O Lord O Lord in their MondayL
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayL
and Sunday campaignsG
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-
It is a time in which no man is extremely wondrousD
It is a time in which rock stupidityL
outsteps the th Column as the sole enemy in AmericaE
It is a time in which ignorance is a good Ameri cunB
ignorance is excused only where it is soR
it is not so in AmericaE
Man is not guilty Christ is not to be fearedS
I am telling you the American Way is a hideous monsterT
eating Christ making Him into Oreos and Dr PepperT
the sacrament of its foul mouthU
I am telling you the devil is impersonating Christ in AmericaE
America's educators preachers are the mental dictatorsV
of false intelligence they will not allow AmericaE
to be smartW
they will only allow death to make America smartW
Educators communicators are the lackeys of theE
American WayI
They enslave the minds of the youngX
and the young are willing slaves but not for longY
because who is to doubt the American WayI
is not the wayI
-
-
The duty of these educators is no differentZ
than the duty of a factory foremanB
Replica production make all the young think alikeA2
dress alike believe alike do alikeA2
Togetherness this is the American WayI
The few great educators in America are weak helplessD
They abide and so uphold the American WayI
Wars have seen such men they who despised things about themB2
but did nothing and they are the most dangerousD
Dangerous because their intelligence is not deniedC2
and so give faith to the youngX
who rightfully believe in their intelligenceD2
Smoke this cigarette doctors smoke this cigaretteE2
and doctors knowR
Educators know but they dare not speak their knowR
The victory that is man is made sad in this fixF2
Youth can only know the victory of being bornB
all else is stemmed until death be the final victoryL
and a merciful one at thatG2
If America falls it will be the blame of its educatorsV
preachers communicators alikeA2
America today is America's greatest threatE2
We are old when we are youngX
America is always new the world is always newB
The meaning of the world is birth not deathH2
Growth gone in the wrong directionB
The true direction grows ever youngX
In this direction what grows grows oldI2
A strange mistake a strange and sad mistakeJ2
for it has grown into an old thingO
while all else around it is newB
Rockets will not make it any youngerT
And what made America decide to growR
I do not know I can only hold it to the strangeness in manB
And America has grown into the American WayI
To be young is to be ever purposeful limitlessD
To grow is to know limit purposelessnessD
Each age is a new ageK2
How outrageous it is that something old and sadL2
from the pre age incorporates each new ageK2
Do I say the Declaration of Independence is oldI2
Yes I say what was good for is not good forM2
It was right and new to say all men were created equalN2
because it was a light thenB
But today it is tragic to say itC
today it should be factO2
Man has been on earth a long timeP2
One would think with his mania for growthQ2
he would by now have outgrown such things asD
constitutions manifestos codes commandmentsD
that he could well live in the world without themB2
and know instinctively how to live and beL
for what is being but the facility to loveR2
-
-
Was not that the true goal of growth loveR2
Was not that ChristJ
But man is strange and grows where he willS2
and chalks it all up to Fate whatever beL
America rings with such strangenessD
It has grown into something strange andT2
the American is good example of this mad growthQ2
The boy man big baby meatU2
as though the womb were turned backwardsD
giving birth to an old manB
The victory that is man does not allow manB
to top off his empirical achievement with deathH2
The Aztecs did it by yanking out young heartsD
at the height of their powerT
The Americans are doing it by feeding their young to theE
WayI
For it was not the Spaniard who killed the AztecV2
but the Aztec who killed the AztecV2
Rome is proof Greece is proof all history is proofW2
Victory does not allow degeneracyL
It will not be the Communists will kill AmericaE
no but America itselfX2
The American Way that sad mad processD
is not run by any one man or organizationB
It is a monster born of itself existing of its selfX2
The men who are employed by this monsterT
are employed unknowinglyL
They reside in the higher echelons of intelligenceD
They are the educators the psychiatrists the ministersD
the writers the politicians the communicatorsD
the rich the entertainment worldY2
And some follow and sing the Way because they sincerelyL
believe it to be goodZ2
And some believe it holy and become minutemen in itC
Some are in it simply to be inB
And most are in it for goldI2
They do not see the Way as monsterT
They see it as the 'Good Life'X2
What is the WayI
The Way was born out of the American Dream aE
nightmareM
The state of Americans today compared to the AmericansD
of the th century proves the nightmareM
Not Franklin not Jefferson who speaks for America todayI
but strange red necked men of industryL
and the goofs of show businessD
Bizarre Frightening The Mickey Mouse sits on the throneB
and Hollywood has a vast supplyA3
Could grammar school youth seriously look uponB
a picture of George Washington and 'Herman Borst'I
the famous night club comedian together at ValleyL
ForgeB3
Old old and decadent gone the dignityL
the American sun seems headed for the graveX2
O that youth might raise it anewlL
The future depends solely on the youngX
The future is the property of the youngX
What the young know the future will knowR
What they are and do the future will be and doI
What has been done must not be done againB
Will the American Way allow thisD
NoR
I see in every American ExpressD
and in every army center in EuropeC3
I see the same face the same sound of voiceD
the same clothes the same walkD3
I see mothers fathers noR
difference among themB2
ReplicasD
They not only speak and walk and think alikeA2
they have the same facelL
What did this monstrous thingO
What regiments a people soR
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How strange is nature's play on AmericaE
Surely were Lincoln alive todayI
he could never be voted President not with hisD
looksD
Indeed Americans are babies all in the embraceD
of Mama WayI
Did not Ike when he visited the American Embassy inB
Paris a year ago say to the staff 'Everything is fine just drinkE3
Coca Cola and everything will be all right '-
This is true and is on recordI
Did not American advertising call for TOGETHERNESSD
not orgiasticly like today's callL
nor as means to stem violenceD
This is true and is on recordI
Are not the army centers in Europe ghettosD
They are and O how sad how lostI
The PX newsstands are filled with comic booksD
The army movies are always Doris DayI
What makes a people huddle soR
Why can't they be universalL

Gregory Corso



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