Allen Ginsberg's Velocity Of Money

Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was born in 1926 to a Jewish family that lived in New Jersey (“Allen Ginsberg”). He was “the second son of Louis Ginsberg, a lyric poet and teacher, and Naomi Levy Ginsberg, a teacher and political activist” (Lewis 1). His first published work came early in life to his school magazine, The Spectator. After graduation in 1943, he became a student at Columbia University in New York. He had every intention of becoming “a pre-law student, hoping to pursue a career in labor law” his classmates that “he studied with… were partially responsible for shifting his focus toward literature” (“Allen Ginsberg”).
While he was enrolled in Columbia he came into some trouble with the law and was faced

It deals with many different themes, but all stay true to who he is. In a brief summary, the poem is about the significant hold money has over people’s life’s. He writes, “Everyone running after the rising dollar…” (“Velocity” 10). The situation is set in New York City on February 18, 1986. We know this because he uses many references to the location, such as “Whistles through wind of Lower East Side” (“Velocity” 1) and “Crowds of joggers down Broadway” (“Velocity” 11). He chooses New York to indicate why the people are so money hungry, because even today New York is world known for their Stock Exchange

His Jewish family was looked upon as nothing out of the ordinary. He had a father, a mom, and a brother that lived in New Jersey with him, but what makes his childhood far from ordinary begins with his mother. She had a past of psychological illness, which in turn brought her to many nervous breakdowns (“Allen Ginsberg”). Seeing your mother ill would have a detrimental effect on any child; this could be a strong attribution to Ginsberg’s peculiar ways. His mom not only influenced his mind unwillingly and unknowingly, but she was the one who was very involved with politics and taught her son. Her political views are what shaped his own beliefs.
His view on politics is one of the many reasons he is so well known. Many of his publications related back to his beliefs, which actually was a strong opposing voice of the way America was ran. His rival viewpoints of the American Government landed him an invitation to Cuba. They “invited Ginsberg to visit under the mistaken assumption that he would approve of their repressive regimes” (Lewis 1). This is just one example of how he became so well