{"id":245,"date":"2019-05-10T07:24:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T07:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp05.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=245"},"modified":"2019-05-10T11:28:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T11:28:20","slug":"the-life-and-selected-poems-of-allen-ginsberg","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp05\/chapter\/the-life-and-selected-poems-of-allen-ginsberg\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life and Selected Poems of Allen Ginsberg"},"content":{"raw":"
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About:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

This paper intends to ventilate upon the life and works of Allen Ginsberg, one of the harbingers of the Beat Generation in the 1950s, America, who went on to become one of the most celebrated poets in the world, influencing many generations of poets to come. It is perhaps difficult to identify what was more intriguing and interesting- Ginsberg\u2019s life or his poetry- as both were mutually inclusive in shaping each other, and the time of the then contemporary, post-World War II scenario. The paper reflects upon his epic poem Howl<\/em>, Kaddish <\/em>for Naomi Ginsberg-his deceased mother, and some other poems that positioned him in a pivotal role to inspire and practice the counter-culture movement in the 1960s. Born a Jewish, a practicing Buddhist and a disciple of Krishnaic Vaishnavism- Ginsberg was an unorthodox Communist as well. Like his life, his works were as versatile thematically, and an influence of his multi-disciplinary interests. A strong advocate for sexual liberation, anti- capitalist and anti-militarist ideologies, Allen Ginsberg in his works painted the world in his work, voicing the concern to do away with Fascist watch-dogs not only in the socio-political scenario, but the very structure of poetry- by radical use of pyrotechnic verse using the parataxis style, prevalent in the works of Walt Whitman, Federico Garcia Lorca, Samuel Beckett, and his contemporaries of the Beat Generation like Herbert Huncke and William S. Burroughs. Ginsberg coined the term \u201cA New Vision\u201d inspired by W. B. Yeats\u2019s \u201cAVision\u201d,\u00a0after a discussion with Lucien Carr while in Columbia University, so as to shape the works of the movement, where he declares the radical proposition of the Beat Generation authors- \u201cit\u00a0 is our duty to break the law\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Introduction to the Beat Generation:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Nobody knows whether we were catalysts or invented something,<\/p>\r\n

or just the froth riding on a wave of its own.<\/p>\r\n

We were all three, I suppose.<\/p>\r\n

-Allen Ginsberg<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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The Beat Generation movement originated in the 1950s America where a group of young writers were documenting, commenting and reflecting upon the observations of\u00a0 contemporary post World War II society and culture, which later yielded to play a pivotal role in shaping the transformational counter-culture wave that swept across America in the following decade. Jack Kerouac, one of the authors initiating the movement came up with the term \u201cBeat Generation\u201d, following a conversation with Herbert Huncke, a writer and a small- time street-hustler, who went on to become one of the greatest influences on the movement. The word \u201cbeat\u201d has been frequently in use in Afro-American colloquialism and referred to a beaten down or tired situation, something that mirrored the post-world war cynicism that was also inspiring a new kind of Conservatism not only politically, but also socio-culturally. The most popular works that defined the style and ideology of the movement were Jack Kerouac\u2019s On The Road<\/em>, William S. Burroughs\u2019s Naked Lunch <\/em>and Junky<\/em>, and Allen Ginsberg\u2019s Howl. <\/em>These works echoed the epoch of the \u201cBeat\u201d culture- rejection of conventional structures, anti-militarism, sexual exploration and freedom, and against the fascist regimentation of expression and society. Inspired from W. B. Yeats\u2019s A Vision, <\/em>they coined the term \u201cA New Vision\u201d that would be the prism through which they saw and depicted the world around them. Other major influences on the Beat literature was the poetry of Walt Whitman, the Romanticism in the works of P.B Shelley and William Blake, French Surrealists Antonin Artaud and Andr\u00e9 Breton, Arthur Rimbaud and the American modernists- Louis Ferdinand- C\u00e9line, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams. Ginsberg also acknowledged the poetry of Emily Dickinson as a major influence on his work. William S. Burroughs cited the novel You Can\u2019t Win <\/em>by Jack Black, who inspired his writing. Other influences on this movement were the works of Samuel Beckett and Federico Garcia Lorca- Ginsberg even annotates Lorca in his poem A Supermarket in California. <\/em>Later in the decade- most people involved with the\u00a0Beat movement would join the San Francisco Renaissance which would give the world the \u201cNew American Poetry\u201d. Jack Kerouac wrote the play, <\/span>Beat Generation<\/em>, which went on to be roughly adapted in Kerouac\u2019s film, <\/span>Pull My Daisy, <\/em>named after the poem written by Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and Kerouac in which Allen Ginsberg acted and improvised narration. Other noted personalities associated with the movement were, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Bob Kauffman, Hal Chase, Peter Orlovsky, Edie Parker, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson, Elisa Nada Cowen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and filmmaker Ruth Weiss, among others. This movement is generally attributed to Ginsberg and his associates. Allen Ginsberg and American poet Anna Waldman established the Naropa Institute\u2019s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodies Poets in 1974.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n\r\nDid you know?<\/strong>\r\n