Allen Ginsberg

Themes and Values of the Beat Generation As Expressed in Allen Ginsberg's Poetry Perhaps one of the most well known authors of the Beat Generation is a man we call Allen Ginsberg, who expresses the themes and values in his poetry. He was, in fact, the first Beat Writer to gain popular notice when he delivered a performance of his now famous poem, Ñ"±HowlÑ"o, in October of 1955. The Beat Generation is typically described as a vision, not an idea and being hard to define. It is characterized as Ñ"±a cultural revolution in process, made by a post-World War II generation of disaffiliated young people...without spiritual values they could honorÑ"o (Charters XX). Although first condemned and criticized, it became a national phenomenon. Allen Ginsberg expressed the intangible beliefs of this generation in his poems about his childhood, curiosity, war, freedom of thought, and other people. Through Allen GinsbergÑ"­s ideal individualism, he has been able to express the themes and values of the Beat Generation. Because of Allen GinsbergÑ"­s tormented childhood, many of his poems were about his relationship with his mother and his own mental problems. Allen Ginsberg was born in Patterson, New Jersey to Louis and Naomi Ginsberg on June 3, 1926. His mother became insane during GinsbergÑ"­s formative years. She was described as a paranoid schizophrenic, believing she was in danger from assassins and was spied on by everyone, including her own family members. For example, in the poem, Ñ"±HowlÑ"o, Ginsberg writes Ñ"± I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked...Ñ"o (Charters 62) of his mother, Naomi. This statement employs him as a witness to the destruction. Her struggle for sanity eventually led to the deterioration of her sons sound mind. Kaddish is a poem written by Ginsberg for his mother. It is 2. a relatively confessional poem and indirectly addresses the reader, or in this case, his mother. It is also seen as an autobiographical elegy that reveals many private experiences which shaped GinsbergÑ"­s life and a confession of personal necessity. Kaddish, the term, comes from a Judaic prayer and suggests the poem is in memory of his mother. Kaddish becomes a song for the dead indicated by the first six words: Ñ"±Strange now to think of you.Ñ"o This indicates one of the poemÑ"­sÑ"­s themes, his mother. For instance, it is written, Ñ"±Death is that remedy all singers dream ofÑ"o (Litz 319). The singer represents the poet and his own turmoil. The fourth section, Ñ"±LamentÑ"o, is a list of regrets for his mother, illustrating his obsession with her. The fifth, called Ñ"±LitanyÑ"o, reiterates major episodes of NaomiÑ"­s sickness. Finally, the fifth section of Ñ"±KaddishÑ"o, Ñ"±FugueÑ"o, represents his own turmoil of emotion and problems which render the poet incapable of articulating anything other than the poems ending, Ñ"±Lord Lord Lord caw caw caw Lord Lord Lord caw caw cawÑ"o (Charters 98). Ñ"±HowlÑ"o also describes GinsbergÑ"­s own mental problems shown when he locates the core of corruption as a Ñ"±monster of mental consciousnessÑ"o (Ginsberg 48), or Moloch, a Fire God. This part of the poem is written in chaotic chants. GinsbergÑ"­s poems about his childhood express the value that Beat writers are Ñ"±very tired people-tired of living before one has started livingÑ"o (Charters XXIV) forced upon Ginsberg by his mother and his own mental problems. In the same way GinsbergÑ"­s poems were stemmed from his childhood, many were stemmed from his undying curiosity. In 1943, he entered Columbia University intending to become a labor lawyer. Though, he soon fell in love with a group of wild students and non students including Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady. Indeed, 3. he wrote of the group and himself in Ñ"±HowlÑ"o by saying Ñ"±who passes through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating.../who were expelled from the academies for crazy and publishing obscene odes on the windows of skull...Ñ"o (Litz 308). This is where his use of drugs came into being, and he was suspended from school for various small offenses. He began experimenting with Benzedrine and marijuana and going to gay bars. Most of Ñ"±KaddishÑ"o was written while on the drugs nitrous oxide, ayahausco, LSD, and mescaline. He used them to Ñ"±widen the area of consciousnessÑ"o (Litz 320), shown in the stream like quality and lack of punctuation in the poem itself. In brief, GinsbergÑ"­s experience of school at Columbia and his use of drugs affected his poetry to illustrate the value shared by the Beat writers that a New Vision, or new light, must be reached through any means. Furthermore, GinsbergÑ"­s feelings about war inspired him to write, what some critics say, some of his best poetry. Beat writers, for the most part, share the same antiwar feelings. They are typically against all sorts of armed conflict and also the oppression that war causes everyone. Ginsberg became a very familiar face at protests against the Vietnam war (Holmes 8). Beatniks protested their countryÑ"­s excess on the front lines (Charters XXXI). They were not only against the war itself, they were against war against humanity. Perhaps GinsbergÑ"­s poem Ñ"±AmericaÑ"o best describes his and other Beat writersÑ"­ attitudes towards the war itself and war against humanity. Granted, Ginsberg writes, Ñ"±America IÑ"­ve given you all and now IÑ"­m nothing / America when will we end the human war? / Go *censored* yourself with your atom bomb / I donÑ"­t feel good donÑ"­t bother me.Ñ"o (Charters 74) This poem also illustrates GinsbergÑ"­s obsession with an atomic fallout and radiation sickness. Ginsberg called this Ñ"±the idea of transience of phenomena - Not a morbid 4. interest in death but the realization of the mortal turn.Ñ"o (Charters XIX)His belief was also spread by the fear and tension of the cold war when people realized he was speaking out against it. Ñ"±HowlÑ"o also fought for an enlightenment from the war and a hope for an end to all forms of it. GinsbergÑ"­s poems about war share the groups beliefs and values against war and everything that it entails. Moreover, his poems about other people than himself illustrate the GenerationsÑ"­ beliefs in a personal attitude, as said by