The Artist

Ferlinghetti goes against the grain and critiques those that stray away from their roots. He describes a group of people that were once original and daring that fall to the path of being the poster children of pretentious artists. He writes, "The party hoppers/wolfing down cheese and wine/without a glance at what might be considered art," to criticize how people fall into stereotypes and lose track of themselves. In this sense, he chooses artists to represent the assimilation of people within the field of art. The stereotypical artist, has wine and cheese, is well-dressed and analyzes other people art. He does into further detail as he says, "sheathed in silk and Christian Dior/ holding long stemmed glasses" to illustrate the assimilation within the the world of artists, people that are supposed to be have unique ideas that essentially, all end up the same way.
Toward the end of the poem he implies that a young artist falls into the trap of being a stereotypical artist.The artist questions, "...Is this/ what I'm painting for?" because he has lost his way within the art world. He has consciousness about the fact that he has strayed away from his path of originality and settled for the typical artist life. Ferlinghetti ends the poem by commenting, "No wonder then that he/ adrift this society/doth drink too much/ and roll upon the floor."This makes a bold statement about the artist, asserting that he "[drank] too much," meaning that the artist lost track of himself and found himself being consumed in pleasing the perpetual preconceptions about artists. By saying that the artist was "rolling on the floor" like a drunk person, he implies that the artist is not himself, but the artist was influenced by something beyond himself, and in this case, it was the people of the art world.