Allen Ginsberg: A Poet Shaped By His Personal Problems And His

Part A: Historical Background

Allen Ginsberg will always be remembered as the “Guru” of the “Beat Generation”, the counter-culture movement that arose in post-World War II America.

His early life was affected by his exposure to Communist party ideology at home and his reactions to being raised by a severely paranoid mother. His experiences at Columbia University and with the group of young intellectuals that he met there formed the basis of his visions that were reflected in his poetry. He developed “a sense of liberation, sexual and philosophical” which were accented by his homosexuality and Communist upbringing and were reflected in his works (Literary Kicks).

Allen Ginsberg was born on June 23, 1926. He began his interest in poetry in High School (in Paterson, NJ) and developed a love for Walt Whitman’s works. His college years were spent at Columbia University at a time immediately following the end of WWII. America was going through a conservative period. The friends he made at college were skeptical about the moral codes being taught by society and enforced during the McCarthy era and they explored anti-establishment, non-conformist ideas. They experimented with hallucinogenic drugs, advocated sexual liberation and a free-wheeling lifestyle at odds with the conservative majority. His friends at the time included Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady (with whom he had a homosexual affair) and William S. Burroughs. His cross-country travels helped inspire Keroac’s “On the Road” adventures.

When the wild college scene crashed (after several arrests and short jail sentences), Ginsberg traveled to San Francisco and met Kenneth Rexroth, the head of an emerging vibrant and youthful local poetry movement. At the legendary Six Gallery poetry reading in October 1955, Ginsberg performed his new poem, “Howl”, which became the greatest expression of “Beat” defiance. He also later wrote “Kaddish”, a poem about his mother’s insanity and death. Although