Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote his poem, "The World is a Beautiful Place...", in 1955. It was a time of war and suffering, largely due to impending Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement starting from 1955. In this poem, Lawrence Ferlinghetti reveals the masked beauty of the world with his distinctive poetic patterns, rhythm, irony and unique style to illustrate the connotative perception of the world and how the world and life itself can be truly beautiful, no matter how long it takes to reach that conclusion. Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem, "The world is a beautiful place...", is written in a ping-pong pattern. In the eyes of the reader, this poetic form can create confusion and stress the interpretation, or understanding, of the poet's representation of what actually lies between the lines of this poem. The lines are constantly interrupted; sometimes they linger or stop abruptly. Additionally, when reading this poem, the reader will instinctively read slower or faster in certain sections of the poem due to the sudden use of rhyme. This is what makes this poem interesting. The reader cannot read this poem just once to understand it. It takes multiple readings and a great deal of reflection to decipher that the poet actually uses this pattern in this poem to describe life's difficulties, sudden pauses, persistent suffering, and sometimes broken dreams. This poem reveals that sometimes, during suffering, death or “upturned face,” things can seem slow, because we dwell on our problems or, as the poet describes, “a touch of hell now and then ”. During our battles, our “improperities” preyed upon by “his men of instinct… of extinction… and his various segregations and congressional investigations and other constipations” the world may seem… middle of paper… He incorporates the images of heaven and hell, which in a fun way can be seen even if you can never experience them. In describing the imperfections of the world, he uses dramatic images of people dying and dying from starvation and bombs. Then, he moves on to admiring images of smiling faces, dancing, and what he calls "the funny scene... and the love scene" as he describes the beauty of the world. That's what makes this poem. The poet has created ways to represent his thoughts in a sense that is descriptive to the mind only. It's hard to understand these poems until you've thought about them, which is exactly what Ferlinghetti wants the reader to realize. Works Cited Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. "The world is a beautiful place..." Literature and its writers. 5th ed. Charters, Ann and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2010. 828-29. Press.