Lana Turner has collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
but hailing hits you on the head
hard so it was really snowing and
raining and I was in such a hurry
to meet you but the traffic
was acting exactly like the sky
and suddenly I see a headline
LANA TURNER HAS COLLAPSED!
there is no snow in Hollywood
there is no rain in California
I have been to lots of parties
and acted perfectly disgraceful
but I never actually collapsed
oh Lana Turner we love you get up
Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed!)
Analysis, meaning and summary of Frank O'Hara's poem Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed!)
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Frank O'Hara better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.
I have always liked this one . . .the rush and bustle of an ordinary day of crazy weather, bad traffic in the city, being wrapped up your own appointments . . . a lot of quick and jumbled lines brought to a halt by a bit of celebrity news. What is it about Hollywood icons? Lana Turner, a woman the narrator has never met, all the way across the country, collapses and it affects him profoundly. He considers his own life, his own behavior (and perhaps, as a gay man, OHara is commenting on the gay identification with Hollywood bombshells) and reaches out to the beautiful stranger on film: Lana Turner we love you get up.
Lana Turner was way before my time, but I like this poem.
P U this stinks… the decline of western civilization.