This volume chronicles the evolution of Allen Ginsberg’s poetic technique across three decades, beginning with the formalist experiments of the late 1940s and moving into the spontaneous breath-based prosody of his later work. The collection includes the long-form verses of Howl and Kaddish, which map the intersection of personal grief and the political atmosphere of the Cold War. The text documents Ginsberg’s transition from Blakean visions in Harlem to his Buddhist studies and anti-war activism, recording specific encounters with the American landscape and the Beat generation.
Readers interested in the technical shifts of twentieth-century American literature use this book to study the mechanics of open-form poetry and the use of the long line. Students of the counterculture find a chronological record of the stylistic changes that moved poetry from academic formality toward public performance. By the final pages, the reader gains a technical understanding of how jazz rhythms and eastern philosophy integrated into English-language verse to change modern prosody.
Deep and inward-looking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1984
- Language
- EN
