Allen Ginsberg example essay topic

Allen Ginsberg, a beat poet, made his debut appearance in the 1960's with his poem "Howl" (see Appendix A). The poem made headlines and began a new era of poetry that was influenced by 'sex, drugs, and rock and roll'. Ginsberg's writings were a combination of Blake, Whitman, Pound, and Williams, all of which he met while he was attending Columbia University. (Schwartzman) With his new style of writing, Ginsberg opened many new doors for poets and writers in America. He had no fear of writing what exactly was on his mind or what he thought. Many times, his writings were influenced by the affects of mind - altering drugs such as inhalants, marijuana, and LSD.

(Gates) Drugs were the main influence in Ginsberg's writings, which could be attributed to his new family life, new - found - friends from Columbia University, and the era in which he lived. Allen Ginsberg was a poet who, at times, seemed to care more about others than he did about himself. From the time that his life began, he had to help look after others. His father, a published poet and high school teacher, died when Allen was the ripe age of ten years old. (Fass) This lack of a male figure in his life could very possibly be the reason that he was gay. Ginsberg's mother was a radical Communist who also was a nudist.

She went tragically insane in early adulthood. It was made obvious to his readers that Ginsberg loved his mother when he wrote a poem for her (Appendix B). In Allen's life, the absence of parental support added to his mixed feelings about sexuality had a heavy influence on his writings. (Fass) Ginsberg attended school at Columbia University intending to be a left - wing lawyer, like his father had wanted him to be, but soon he fell in with a bad crowd who was out of the literary, cultural, political, and sexual mainstream. In 1956, Ginsberg wrote the poem "Howl" (see Appendix A), which made him notorious. It was said to be a prophecy of the hell - and - heaven that was to break loose in the 1960's.

(Gates) After that poem had received publicity, Ginsberg said that he wanted to be known as the most brilliant man in America. (Gates) That wish was granted when Allen began to be known as the literary voice that was most known and respected by young Americans. He was a mystic, an original beatnik, a political protester, and probably the free spirit that everyone at some time was has wished that they could be (Tytell). This hippie scene in the early 60's was where he and his friend Timothy Leary worked together to publicize Leary's new discovery, the psychedelic drug LSD. (Fass) Allen also experimented with Benzedrine, marijuana, and cruised gay bars with his new friends.

(Kramer, XV) Ginsberg devised his stance and long - breathed cadences from the Bible, Blake, Christopher Smart, and Whitman -- with special effects courtesy of LSD, speed, and laughing gas (Gates). In 1972 he took Buddhist vows. If they didn't interfere much with his appetite for sex, drugs, and hanging with rock stars, they surely deepened his sense of the transitory nature of these pleasures, and the void beyond. (Gates) It was not hard to see the effects of these drugs on his life. Ginsberg died at the age of 70. On his deathbed, he wrote twelve poems including "Death on All Fronts" (Appendix A) His last and longest talk was with William Burroughs, 83 at the time, who had introduced him to the "druggy gay - hipster lowlife" in the 40's.

(Gates) Ironically, Allen Ginsberg died shortly before the 30th anniversary of The Summer of Love in San Francisco. And most probably, there would have been no hippies, no flower children, no Sixties revolution had it not been for The Beats of the 50's and early 60's, and for Ginsberg, Kerouac, Leary, Ferlinghetti, and the others of that preceding time of alternatives. (Fass) To add to Ginsberg's accomplishments, he also coined the term "Flower Power" in the 1960's (Vortex). This related to the time period in that it was a term that was used quite regularly. It was used to send the message of peace. The techniques that Allen Ginsberg used could be summed up with two words: Beat Generation.

This was a literary movement that began with such writers such as Ginsberg, Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, and Snyder. This generation and its subculture were known for its "restlessness, and alienated nature" (Anderson, 1128). The beat generation joined forces with other writers that had similar beliefs and made a group called the San Francisco Renaissance. Ginsberg became known as a kind of literary and psychological guru (Anderson 1128). He wrote in open forms while exploring Eastern and Western mysticism from Buddha to William Blake. While he was greatly concerned with the human psyche, he was also concerned with action against war, the abuse of nature, and all curbs on freedom (Anderson 1128).

The poem "Homework" clearly displayed his concerns as shown in the excerpt: "If I were doing my laundry I'd wash my dirty Iran / I'd throw in my United States, and pour on the Ivory Soap, scrub up Africa, put all the birds and elephants back in the jungle" (Anderson 1128). In Ginsberg's writings, he used free verse (Appendix A, B) to reproduce how people speak naturally. He wanted nothing unnatural in his poetry. It's possible that Ginsberg got this style from Whitman, his mentor, who was the first American poet to use free verse (Anderson 1144). Ginsberg also used imagery in many of his poems.

Several of the poems that he wrote, too explicit to repeat, gave the reader a very clear image of what he was explaining or where he wanted the reader to feel. In addition to Ginsberg's poetry, there were many other works that were related to the use of drugs during the time period of the 1950'5-1960's. One of the works was Alice in Wonderland. Thought to be an every - day children's story, viewers can see in the movie that Alice experiences many hallucinations that could be caused by drugs. Many critics say that the story is nothing but a story of a girl on LSD (Vortex). Allen Ginsberg, a mentor to many young writers and free spirits, was a man who followed his heart, which sometimes led him down the wrong path, but helped him to become a poet that many people look up to.

His ideals were fresh and down to earth. This and the fact that Ginsberg was against war and pollution and into the '60's scene' made him the perfect hippie. Of all of the things that Ginsberg contributed to America, the realism that everyone can make a difference no matter what life style they lead was the most important thing. Though his writings were obviously influenced by drugs, he opened eyes and hearts to a new vision. That vision was peace, love and happiness. Appendix A excerpt from Howl I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angel headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machin- ery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on ten- ment roofs illuminated, who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull, who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burn- ing their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through the wall, who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York, who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatories their torsos night after night with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, al- cool and cock and endless balls, incomparable blind; streets of shuddering cloud and lightning in the mind leaping toward poles of Canada & Paterson, illuminating all the mo- tion less world of Time between, Peyote solidifies of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, -San Francisco, 1955-1956 (Austin) Appendix B excerpt from Kaddish It leaps about me, as I go out and walk the street, look back over my shoulder, Seventh Avenue, the battlements of window office buildings shouldering each other high, under a cloud, tall as the sky in an instant -- and the sky above -- an old blue place. or down the Avenue to the south, to -- as I walk toward the Lower East Side -- where you walked 50 years ago, little girl -- from Russia, eating the first poisonous tomatoes of America -- frightened on the dock -- then struggling in the crowds of Orchard Street toward what? -- toward Newark -- toward candy store, first home-made sodas of the century, hand-churned ice cream in backroom on musty brown floor boards -- Toward education marriage nervous breakdown, operation, teaching school, and learning to be mad, in a dream -- what is this life?

(Austin)

Bibliography

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Austin, James. "Holy Soul Jelly Roll - Poems and Songs (1949-1993) ".
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