Thomas Paine. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Martin Luther King, Jr. When one thinks of people who began a new generation, inspiring people, motivating people, and leading them, these names may come to mind. However, one that many neglect is the genius of Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg’s actions and opinions, built by his background, caused the eternal and cultural birth known as the 1960s.

Allen Ginsberg’s colorful childhood led him to a deviant youth, causing an eruption of unique and intellectual poetry, which not only incited a new genre of literature and life, but inspired countless others to take a stand?no matter how differently they thought. Truly, Ginsberg proved to be a real individual, especially seen in his stylistic, liberal poetry.

Unfortunately, his life began awkwardly, and he struggled to cope with his family’s dysfunction. Many of the things which occurred while he was still a youth molded him into the poetic giant the world now knows today. While he may be very famous, his poetry outweighs his name. One of his most renowned works, “A Supermarket in California” still remains unclear to many, but it stands as an innovating and thought-provoking piece of literature, expressing his views of the world and its future, while praising the poetic idols of the past. While Ginsberg drew inspiration from artists of the past, he inspired an entire generation and is indeed considered a forerunner of ‘60s culture and life.

Precisely one month after Napoleon Bonaparte died at age sixty-three, Allen Ginsberg was born. June 3, 1926, created the boy, born of a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, two days after the World’s Fair hit Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Wikipedia).
The son of a high school teacher and part time poet, Ginsberg developed a love of great literature and often wrote to the New York Times as a teen, expressing his views on World War Two and worker’s rights (Wikipedia). Sadly, he never got along well with his father. His mother, Naomi Levi Ginsberg, aside from being a nudist and member of Communist Party USA, suffered from epilepsy and paranoia. When Ginsberg became a teenager, his mother asked him to accompany her by bus to a mental home, where she could receive electroshock therapy and a lobotomy. His mother and that trip gave Ginsberg “enormous empathy and tolerance for madness, neurosis, and psychosis” (Poet.org, Wikipedia, Charters).

After graduating from Eastside High School in 1943, Ginsberg briefly studied at Montclair State University before receiving a scholarship from the Young Men’s Hebrew Association to Columbia University in New York. Besides cutting class to write in corner cafes, Ginsberg met Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and John Clellon Holmes?all future members or founders of the Beat Movement (Wikipedia). Ginsberg’s radical ideology and behaviors began to unfurl while at Columbia. After a period of not cleaning his dorm window, Ginsberg wrote in the window’s dirt a comment about the maid, claiming that she was anti-Semitic. He also wrote that the president of the school possessed no testicles (Charters). After hearing of these obscene comments, students barged into Ginsberg’s dorm to investigate, only to find him and Kerouac in bed? ultimately leading to his expulsion (Asher).

After returning to Columbia for a degree, Ginsberg moved into a lower East Side apartment. One night, while working there in 1948, Ginsberg heard what seemed to be the voice of God reciting the William Blake poems “Ah Sunflower”, “The Sick Rose”, and “Little Girl Lost.” He interpreted the voice as Blake himself. Though he claimed to have never used drugs prior to that hallucination, he admitted to using drugs later to emulate the experience (Wikipedia).

The Blake Vision, as he called it, allowed him to understand the universe (Wikipedia). He lived life well, experimenting with most drugs, partying in gay bars in Greenwich Village, and associating with thieves (Asher). In June 1949, Ginsberg was arrested with Herbert Huncke as an accessory to robbery. They stored stolen goods in Ginsberg’s apartment; as an alternative to jail, a former Columbian professor arranged for Ginsberg to spend eight months in Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric Institution. During that time, he met the poet, Carl Solomon, who encouraged Ginsberg to become a professional poet (Charters).

After a brief stint of working in an office, he grew sick of conventionality and traveled a bit, at first to Mexico and later, San Francisco (Poets.org). There he met members of the San Francisco Renaissance, including the Russian playwright, Peter Orlovsky, who caused Ginsberg to stop pretending to be heterosexual and eventually becoming his life-long lover. It was also under the influence of the great minds of California (specifically Michael Miller and W.H. Auden) that Ginsberg blossomed. He read with those giants at the Six Gallery (later known as the Six Poets at the Six Gallery), and it was there, on October 7, 1955, that Ginsberg unveiled his most famous (and first) piece: “Howl” (Weinberger 26, Wikipedia, and Asher).

While the creation of “Howl” amalgamated the East and West poets, it incited the furies and flames of 1950’s conservative culture. Due to its scandalous language and outright promotion of the homosexual lifestyle, the poem was banned in San Francisco, and several bookstore owners were arrested. In 1956, the Howl Obscenity Trial occurred, provoking the debate of cause c?l?bre?the First Amendment. Eventually the ban was lifted (Wikipedia and Asher).

Ginsberg’s poetic genius often reflected his views about life, especially the political ones. He was a major advocate for free speech and traveled to Communist countries to promote it. After a week in Cuba he was deported (due to his outspoken nature) and sent to Czechoslovakia, where he was declared an “immoral menace” and was soon forced to leave (Wikipedia). Ginsberg also loved protests and he organized hundreds of them, most specifically against the Vietnam War. He and his comrades suffered through the tear gassings and attacks by the California Hell’s Angels. After the first day of a two day protest, he visited Sonny Barger, head of the Angels, bringing LSD as a sign of friendship. Barger deemed him of good character and no attacks occurred the second day (Wikipedia).

In addition to liberal political ideals, Ginsberg also believed in a post-modern sexual revolution. He experimented with many types of sexualities and had an inkling for pedophilia?although he never technically engaged in it. He was a leading member of NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) where he hoped to encourage free speech and change oppressive laws for minors that dictate how they can love (Wikipedia). Ginsberg also supported the legalization of marijuana and tried most types of drugs, his favorite being nitrous oxide (Poets.org).

Approximately a week before his death, Ginsberg penned his final poem “Things I’ll Not Do (Nostalgias)” in which he reflects upon his life. He died from liver cancer that arose from complications from hepatitis, and was surrounded by his family and friends in his lifelong apartment on April 5, 1997. Buried in a corner of the Gomel Chase Cemetery in a family plot, Ginsberg’s grave is not too glamorous; however, flocks of fans and true beatniks adorn his resting place with personal stories, copies of his books, and other presents all year long, thus proving the eternal place Ginsberg’s poetry has in everyone’s heart (Wikipedia).

At first, Ginsberg’s poetry was highly criticized for several reasons. Some said it lacked meter or rhythm, when just the opposite occurred. People did not much care for his use of free verse, which he defended by citing William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, and Walt Whitman. Many other more ignorant critics claimed his words were too obscene (Wikipedia), however; through persistence (and previously mentioned trials) Ginsberg’s poetic styling aided in the change of out-dated obscenity laws.

In addition to being racy, Ginsberg’s poetry was often considered very surreal and even Dadaesque?against war and conventionality?a quality he picked up from his major influence, Carl Solomon. Ginsberg also never strategized his poetry but believed in spontaneous prose (no revisions, just a constant flow of writing) and natural speech. He understood that natural speech models meter, so poetry automatically falls into meter. Also, Ginsberg frequently determined his lines by breath; thus, for whatever reason, he wrote very long lines to be read in one breath. He traced this practice back to another idol of his: Walt Whitman. He thoroughly relished using absurd techniques, such as catachresis (the intentional misuse of a word’s definition) and his homemade eyeball kick, in which he juxtaposed objects creating a sort of paradox. A famous example exists in “Howl”, “mustard gas of sinister intelligent editors,” although all of his poems featured them, including the following: (Wikipedia, Charters)

“A Supermarket in California”
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for
I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache
self-conscious looking at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went
into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families
shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the
avocados, babies in the tomatoes!–and you, Garcia Lorca, what
were you doing down by the watermelons?
I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber,
poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery
boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the
pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans
following you, and followed in my imagination by the store
detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our
solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen
delicacy, and never passing the cashier.
Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in
an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the
supermarket and
feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The
trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we’ll both be
lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love
past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
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?

“A Supermarket in California” possesses all of the elements of Ginsberg’s style. “What peaches and what penumbras!” effectively uses catachresis, in which he leads the reader to believe that penumbras are some sort of a fruit. Also, he uses his stylistic eyeball kick with “frozen delicacy”, in that most frozen foods are not much considered delicacies (Elite Skills). Chock full of long lines and surreal images, “A Supermarket in California” stands as a great example of Ginsberg’s writing style, and it serves as a beautiful commentary on life.

This poem is an analysis of American culture and conventionality. Ginsberg claimed, “If the mainstream culture was so . . . curious about what we were doing, then they must be pretty empty like a paper tiger, and we would have to supply some kind of real culture in America, or real inspiration. That was back in ’59” (LIFE). He described himself as a hungry soul looking all over conventional American culture for fulfillment, “In my hungry fatigue . . . I went to the neon fruit supermarket.” He tells of the normalcy of life in the supermarket: “Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!” The store overflows with what was expected of the average American at that time, and the non-conformist (Garcia Lorca) lies hidden “down by the watermelons.” Walt Whitman, Ginsberg’s idol, stands somewhat hidden as well, because non-conformists have never been well accepted in a standard society (obviously). This poem also traces the idolization Ginsberg felt towards Walt Whitman. Whitman questions things, “Who killed the pork chops?” and Ginsberg sees this and follows. Together they taste of what conventional society has to offer but never giving back, “We strode down the open corridors . . . tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.” Together they leave the store thinking of lost ideals and dreaming of what the future can hold.

Ginsberg’s legacy lives long past his physical body. His ideals and poetry formed the Beat Movement and he is, despite his disinterest, considered to be the founder and father of the Beat Generation. His poetry inspired such artists as John Lennon and Bob Dylan, bringing forth a plethora of peace music and its offspring (Wikipedia). He promoted peace, love and the study of true science?the intangible things that can never be flawed by reason?he despised physical science and knew that nuclear science was never well researched (LIFE). Consequently, he founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disemebodied Poets at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado (Asher). Ginsberg also published several books and won countless awards, but with a legacy as magnificent and powerful as his, what do they really matter? The man inspired an entire generation, being a spokesman for the sixties, the father of Beatniks (and hippies, of course), and the coiner of the term “flower power” (Weinberger 27). The real American Revolution occurred through him.

Sadly, America never became what he dreamed it could be. Ginsberg desired a world where people could be free to live and love as they pleased, without being bogged down by conformity, society‘s expectations, or government. He saw numerous problems with 1950s Americana, described them thoroughly in his near epic poem “Howl”, worked to change them in the 1960s and beyond and still never saw much of a change as he lied on his death bed in 1997. The least his fans could do is work to change America, to pick up where he left off.

Allen Ginsberg lived a tremendous life. He began as a humble boy in a disturbed family in Newark, New Jersey, and grew to attend a prestigious school in this country. Despite setbacks due to his devilish nature, he prospered and eventually found love and fame (though he did not desire the latter). He worked to change obscenity laws, foreign policy, free speech infringements, and drug laws?not to mention all of the literature he penned. His poetry possessed a specific Ginsbergian style: catachresis, mixed lines, long breaths, natural meter, spontaneous prose, Dadaism, and his signature eyeball kick. All of these things contributed to Ginsberg’s eternal fame and spot in the hippy’s heart.

Anyone that knows anything about Allen Ginsberg knows that he was a bit of a rabble-rouser. The length of his crimes and pranks can surprise even the heartiest fan, if one really examines them. The list is quite extensive; while that is not bad, it is interesting and proves that Ginsberg was a true individual. He had beliefs?some quite odd?and lived out those beliefs to the fullest in hopes to achieve change and make this country?this world?better. The extent to which he lived his life surprises and inspires anyone. That is how everyone should live his or her lives.

Works Cited
“A Supermarket in California Analysis.” Elite Skills Classics. 6 November 2004. 19 April 2007. <http://www.eliteskills.com/c/13533>.
“Allen Ginsberg.” American Poetry Since 1950: innovations and outsiders: an anthology. Ed. Eliot Weinberger. New York: Marsilio, 1993. 25-29.
“Allen Ginsberg.” Poets.org. 2007. The Academy of American Poets. 6 April 2007. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php//prmPID/8>.
“Allen Ginsberg.” Wikipedia. 4 April 2007. Wikipedia. 11 April 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg>.
Asher, Levi. “Allen Ginsberg.” Litkicks. 19 September 2001. Literary Kicks. 8 April 2007. <http://wwwlitkicks.com/BeatPages/page.jsp?what=AllenGinsberg>.
Charters, Ann. “Allen Ginsberg’s Life.” Modern American Poetry. 18 March 2001.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 10 April 2007. <http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm>.
Ginsberg, Allen. “The Beats and the Boom: A Conversation with Allen Ginsberg.” LIFE’S World Wide Web Site. <http://www.life.com/life/boomers/ginsberg.html>.

Article name: What Thoughts I Have of You Tonight, Allen Ginsberg essay, research paper, dissertation

Make Assignments Great Again

24/7 customer support: biographies/3915-what-thoughts-i-have-of-you-tonight-allen-ginsberg.html