Allen Ginsberg Poetry

Allen Ginsberg once said, "My poetry has always been a picture of my mind moving,"(Drooker 1). Ginsberg's mind was always moving because he studied and experimented with different forms of inspiration in order to find meaning in life. During Ginsberg's self-exploration, he became acquainted with the works of his predecessors and some of the different religions practiced by his colleagues. Ginsberg was a master at finding and describing beauty in commonplace things, and with the help of William Blake, Walt Whitman, and Zen Buddhism he set out on a journey to find the answers to all of life's questions.

The writings of Ginsberg exhibit many similar qualities to the work of William Blake. Blake was a true Romantic who, like Ginsberg, was very emotional, natural, and individual in both his lifestyle and writing. Also like Ginsberg, Blake was considered mad by many who knew him and was not appreciated until after his time. He opposed social norms of the Industrial Revolution. Ginsberg took Blake's movement to heart when Blake appeared to Ginsberg in a vision in 1948. Ginsberg later told people that he had seen God (Hyde 1). According to Paul Portugés, Ginsberg searched for a way to have "poetics of vision" which he said was a way to explain his hallucinations in a higher sense of reality (Portugés 131). Asher said that since Ginsberg and the Beats saw the world as corrupt, then their "insanity" was the only way to reach purification (Asher Paragraph 23). This point of view was very similar to the beliefs of Blake and his associates. A poem that exemplifies Blake's methods is "An Eastern Ballad" in which Ginsberg says that he "had never dreamed the sea so deep, the earth so dark." This statement is used to show how little we know about the universe, yet people seek to corrupt, alter, and control what we know rather than try to learn more (Hyde 20). James A. Heffernan states that Ginsberg was much like Blake in that he was a "prophet against empire." Ginsberg was an advocate of the individual, not the system, and made that very clear in his works (Heffernan 256).

According to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, Ginsberg "celebrated the pleasures of psychotropic drugs, footloose wandering, and homosexuality" of Walt Whitman and his poetry (Encyclopædia Britannica). In the poem "Sweet Boy, Gimme Yr Ass," Ginsberg uses Whitman-like writing as he writes down his stream of consciousness during an experience with a lover. He makes it clear that his lover is another male, but at the end of the poem, Ginsberg tells Carlos, his lover, to relax as Carlos let out a "relaxed sweet sigh?" Ginsberg has touched on many topics that have to deal with homosexuality, but the last few lines of this poem and the question mark at the end point to the idea of one man questioning his sexuality at the last minute as the other attempts to comfort him. This poem is used to show that people should have sexual freedom, leaving themselves with no second thoughts or misconceptions about how people will view them if they follow through on an action that is not the social norm at the time (Ginsberg 34-35). Many of Ginsberg's works focus on wandering thoughts that he decided to write down on paper such as "To the Dead" which is a short poem in he states, "You were here on earth, in cities- where now? Bones in the ground, thoughts in my mind,"(Ginsberg 41). This is just another example of Whitman's style that Ginsberg used to tell about what he was thinking at the moment he wrote it. "I Love Old Whitman So" is an ode to Walt Whitman that Ginsberg composed in China in 1984. He tells of how much he admires Whitman's free verse and transcendentalist style. Transcendentalists, like Romantics, were against the general state of culture and society and believed in an ideal spirituality that "transcends" the physical world that can only be achieved by an individual's own knowledge, not through following a specific religion (Ginsberg 58). Whitman's free writing inspired Ginsberg to write as much in one line as he could fit in a breath. It also inspired him to write what he was feeling in poems such as "March: Thoughts Sitting Breathing" in which he writes about how he envisions the United States being destroyed as a result of the corrupt world he claims to live in (Ginsberg 7). Czeslaw Milosz said that, like Whitman, Ginsberg wrote of how humanity corrupted the world by tricking themselves into believing that they were greater than nature by destroying it and creating their own "nature." Whitman believed that he was "alive amongst the living" which is a similar thought held by Ginsberg who believed that he was at a higher awareness then others (Milosz 268).

Finally, Zen Buddhism had a large impact on the work of Ginsberg in many ways. Ginsberg was introduced to the Zen Buddhist religion by Jack Kerouac by Kerouac's singing the prayer of the Three Refuges: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. These three are what Buddhists look for when in need of guidance. This vocal performance really hit the spot with Ginsberg because he later said when reflecting on his first Buddhist experience that "Kerouac introduced me to Buddhism in the form of song,"(Trigilio 36). Bruce Hunsberger said that the Zen practiced by the Beats and exhibited in the works of Ginsberg is different than the conventional Zen:

"There is also the modified Zen Buddhism practiced by the Beats. Zen without the Zen discipline. Zen divested of everything but satori, the flash of insight which is total awareness-"to find out Eternity." (Hunsberger 159)

It was practiced in order to achieve a higher level of awareness (On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg, 159). "Angkor Wat" is a poem by Ginsberg in which he analyzes whether or not his homosexuality is compatible with the Zen Buddhist religion (Trigilio 35). In another poem he refered to the head of one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism when he said, "in his purple hat- Gyalwa Karmapa sits in Rumtek Monastery Sikkim & yearly shows his most remarkable woven dakini-hair," (Ginsberg 58). It is clear that the Zen Buddhists and their teachings were the reason for the themes behind many of Ginsberg's poems. One time, when he was questioned about why he chose to be a Zen Buddhist, Ginsberg responded saying, "I just really dig this mantra, that's all." This was a perfect Zen answer because Zen was all about achieving enlightenment through experience, not specific scripture (Kramer 107).

Clearly, it is evident that Ginsberg's writings were truly inspired by Blake, Whitman, and Zen Buddhism. His search for a higher understanding caused him to follow both the writing styles and lifestyles of those three influences. Just like Ginsberg was moved by those who came before him, future writers will surely look up to Ginsberg and follow his example while trying to find the answers to life's questions.

Resources

Asher, Levi. "Kaddish | Literary Kicks." Literary Kicks. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. /www.litkicks.com/Kaddish>.
"Allen Ginsberg." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.
Ginsberg, Allen. Mind breaths: poems 1972 - 1977. 2. print. ed. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1978. Print.
Ginsberg, Allen, Czeslaw Milosz, Paul Portugés, Bruce Hunsberger, James A. Heffernan and Lewis Hyde. On the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984. Print.
Ginsberg, Allen. White Shroud: Poems, 1980-1985. New York: Perennial Library, 1986. Print.
Ginsberg, Allen, and Eric Drooker. Illuminated poems. 1. Print. Ed. New York [u.a.: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1996. Print.
Ginsberg, Allen. The fall of America; poems of these States, 1965-1971.. San Francisco: City Lights, 1972. Print.
Kramer, Jane. Allen Ginsberg in America: with a new introduction by the author. New York: Fromm International Pub., 1997. Print.
Trigilio, Tony. Allen Ginsberg's Buddhist poetics. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007. Print.