SAN FRANCISCO’S CHANGING LIGHT

Ferlinghetti uses the constantly shifting movement of light to paint a poetic image of San FranciscoSan Francisco. Rather than confining the city to a strict perimeter of boundaries, Ferlinghetti’s image of the city is one that expands beyond tangible limits. in ‘The Changing Light.’ He uses the image of light in order to show the fluidity of the contado of

Ferlinghetti tropes San Francisco as “an island (of) light”—a special form separate from the rest of the America. Unlike the rest of the country, San Francisco is not destined to one particular, physical local. Instead, “the city drifts anchorless upon the ocean”; it is weightless and unrestricted. Despite the images of San Francisco as a malleable light source that “floats in” and just as quickly “drifts” away, the speaker has a very concrete attachment to the city. The constant flow of light in and out of the city establishes an image of the city as a contado of peripheries. Ferlinghetti creates an image of the ever-changing city that “the sun paints white” as quickly as it “[blankets] the hills” in a layer of fog.

The use of “your” creates a separation between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ within the poem. The speaker clearly asserts his alliance with San Francisco and contests that it “is none of your…light” (76). He gives off a sense of prideful ownership of “the light of San Francisco,” which does not and cannot belong to anyone. The use of “your” sounds defensive because the whole poem is Ferlinghetti trying to defend an undefined, amoebic space. The city he describes is constantly morphing and changing and yet he is desperately trying to hold onto it by defining it in terms that make it his and not ‘yours.’

The description of the city as glowing “white” creates an image that is imperial and regal. Ferlinghetti’s diction reflects his reverence for San Francisco. In his eyes, the city’s beauty trumps that of the “East Coast…Paris,” and even “Greece." Ferlinghetti presents an image of San Francisco in ‘The Changing Light’ that encompasses his pride and admiration for his city without pigeonholing it into a confined space.