Question

Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?

At the end of his poem, Ginsberg uses these allusions to convey a feeling of
hopefulness that modern-day America can turn back the hands of time.
doom and gloom caused by the pressure of conforming with the middle-class American society.
sadness since the speaker will never experience the same America as in Whitman’s day.
pride and appreciation for his fellow poet’s role in American literary history.

Answer 1

sadness since the speaker will never experience the same America as in Whitman’s day.

Explanation: invoking Charon and the river Lethe (death and forgetfulness) along with calling Whitman a “father…courage-teacher” creates a mournful sense of a lost, passing America that can no longer be recovered.