“The World Is a Beautiful Place” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Credit: Burst

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don’t mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don’t sing
all the time

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem “The World is a Beautiful Place” is a whimsical, thought-provoking piece that examines the constant presence of life and death in our world. The poem presents a series of contrasting images and ideas that ultimately suggest that even in the face of death, life remains beautiful and worth living. But don’t get too comfortable, because things can also suck.

The poem begins with a simple declaration: “The world is a beautiful place.” This statement is repeated throughout the poem, serving as a kind of refrain that ties everything together. But every time he says the world is beautiful, he adds some sort of caveat that makes it look a little less so. These contrasting images serve to highlight the many challenges and difficulties that life presents.

For example, Ferlinghetti writes:

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn’t half bad
if it isn’t you

Sure, things can be great even while other people in the world are starving to death. This gallows optimism is steady throughout the poem.

For much of the piece, the beat poet continues inflating these optimistic moments then quickly letting the air out with a nod to the hard parts of life. At one point he lets out a stream of only negative thoughts. The world is beautiful if you don’t mind “a few dead minds,” “bombs in upturned faces,” and “congressional investigations,” to name a few. By listing these harsh truths together, it feels like he’s mimicking the sensation of a downward spiral — an experience many humans know.

Credit: Burst

Soon after, he balances it out with a whirlwind of the little things that make life great:

Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants
and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
‘living it up’

And right when you may think that life seems pretty good, Ferlinghetti hits us with us one final dose of reality: “Yes / but then right in the middle of it / comes the smiling mortician.”

In the end, this push and pull starts to feel like the rhythm of life itself, almost like the breath coming in and out. There’s a lot of back and forth with a long positive stretch and a long negative stretch. Most of would probably agree that this is a similar rhythm to the general human experience. Ultimately, “The World is a Beautiful Place” serves as a reminder of the fragility and beauty of life, and encourages us to appreciate the world around us while we still have the chance.