Though “the dress of dust”40 can blanket individual experience, the word “dress” bringing with it connotations of pretension or artificiality, it is posited that when united, humankind is not comprised of “smut and smog and smoke” but a pure, sacred essence permitting creative authenticity, unearthed throughout the poem’s progression. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was an American writer best known for the novel ‘On the Road,’ which became an American classic, pioneering the Beat Generation in the 1950s. To understand Ginsberg, we must engage with profound considerations about what it means to be human and to feel truly alive – or truly oneself – in a corporate universe which deadens this capacity. The initial evocation “Over and over — refrain — of the Hospitals” suggests the invasive presence of hospital noise, either as literal sounds or the metaphorical resurgence of waves of disturbing hospital-based memories, cutting into the speaker’s psyche like a warbling alarm bell and obstructing his consciousness. It is fascinating to discuss the significance of moonlight as an elected illuminator rather than sunlight in Ginsberg’s work. McClure, Michael, Scratching the Beat Surface: Essays on New Vision from Blake to Kerouac (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1994). Its conflict relating to the theme of enlightenment and the poem’s capacity to deliver this is less war-like and more a teetering attempt to balance the playful discarding of cultural impositions with uncertainty about the future direction of literary discourse and developments in the broader trajectory of American culture. Route Publishing. 51 Ibid., pp. Tellingly, the poem closes with “lights out in the houses”54 — the insincerity of electric light finally dimmed at the end of the day to clear space for a silent, deeper place of spiritual understanding. The Poetry Foundation, , [accessed Oct 2018 – March 2019]. These short lines alternate as if sustaining cautious equilibrium with one another in illustration of the notion of contrasts at the poem’s centre, building a majesty and beauty which are both aesthetic and conceptual. This theme of being in dialogue with a broader literary trajectory also emerges in many of his other poems, such as the descriptions of ashes in conjunction with materialism in “Sunflower Sutra” which are reminiscent of Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic valley of ashes in The Great Gatsby, and references to Emily Dickinson in “Kaddish.” Though also commenting on consumer culture, as represented through the motif of the supermarket, “A Supermarket in California” has a playfulness to its imagery, conveying a less severe social critique than works like “Sunflower Sutra” or “Howl” which employ bleaker imagery. As Ginsberg’s most famous and widely-discussed work, this poem forms an essential springboard from which to explore the themes with which his art is most preoccupied. ... along with a sweet spirituality that seems to come from the universe itself and not from an organized religion. Friends Who Liked This Quote. Abram, Dario, “Walt Whitman: Homoeroticism in Leaves of Grass,” American Literature 2012, Academia.edu . The lines “and so must rest/ in the arms of love/ at last,/ must rest in the arms/ of love” seem particularly attuned with the melodic implications of the poem’s title, conveying a lullaby-like rhythm through repetition. [accessed 21 December 2018]. This set of incantations driven forwards by the word “blessed” also sanctifies “the madhouse,” “Paranoia” (made deific in the capitalisation of its first letter) and “Hospitals.”. Allen Ginsberg Documentary Website-Visionary, radical, spiritual seeker, renowned beat poet, founding member of a major literary movement, champion of human rights, Buddhist, political activist and teacher—Allen Ginsberg’s remarkable life shaped the very soul of American counterculture. That these icons of spiritual wisdom are placed beside a description of the “imagination” of poetic vision implies that equally valuable transcendent perspective can be gleaned from poetry. One can see that Whitman considers spirituality as the link between human beings and nature. a spiritual thinker. Holy! There are a number of poems set in places like Varanasi (Benares) and Siem Reap (Angkor) that reflect Ginsberg’s traveling exploration of these systems. His first published work, 'Howl and Other Poems' (1956), sparked the San Francisco Renaissance and defined the generation of the '50s with an authority and vision that had not occurred in the United States since T. S. Eliot captured the anxiety of the 1920s in The Waste Land. The second section of “Kaddish” presents an opening line punctuated by dashes, perhaps in allusion to the poetic style of Dickinson who Ginsberg previously mentions in section I: “Over and over — refrain — of the Hospitals — still haven’t written your history — leave it abstract — a few images.” This line is thus not just in “remembrance of electrical shocks”38 but in remembrance too of one of the founding figures of US poetry, aligning Ginsberg’s poetic voice with Dickinson’s, so simultaneously paying homage to American literary tradition and infusing its narrative with the concerns of Ginsberg’s time. ISBN 0-520-24015-4; Template:Harvard reference; Schumacher, Michael (ed.). 23 Ibid., p. 2. 2 Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Kaddish and other Poems (London: Penguin Classics, 2009), p. viii 1 p. 82-85, (2009) , [accessed 28 January 2019]. Saul Austerlitz, Allen Ginsberg,” My Jewish Learning [accessed 18 March 2019]. Yet, formally it echoes “Howl” with energetic, long lines, which layer onto each other a myriad of detailed images. 53-72. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression. Religious texts are often envisaged in terms of having been “revealed” to a prophet, as their energy derives from beyond the realm of human activity and creative potential. Unlike “Howl,” which draws from an intense, brazen and at times harrowing field of imagery, “A Supermarket in California” is more delicate in tone. Such a wasted state of modernity is implied by the motif of the “dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive.” The automobile as a symbol of US identity recalls Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in which cars, flashy embodiments of motorized, industrialized consumerism, are central to characters’ downfall. 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