Research Paper On Allen Ginsberg

“We are born and we die…[Life is] both a melancholy and a sweet and joyful flavor” (Carter 523). Allen Ginsberg said this during an interview with Thoman Gladysz in 1991; this was one of the last interviews before his death in April 1997 (Caveney 202). Allen Ginsberg thought of life as bittersweet because he never fit into society’s “mold”. He appraised the idea of living in freedom: not caring at all about what people thought and doing whatever the heck you wanted to do. Although he was born and raised in a Jewish household, he sought to find inspirations that defined the meaning of freedom. He discovered Walt Whitman, Zen Buddhism, and William Blake; he embraced the freedom concept in Zen Buddhism, the homosexual appeal of Walt Whitman, and

Ginsberg wrote a poem called 5 A.M., expressing the cruelty of modern religion, but the freedom of Buddhism. He made it clear that he “...[doesn’t] believe it, you'll get entangled in Heaven or Hell --Guilt power, that makes the heart beat wake all night” (inspirationalstories). He warned people to not get into the messiness of Christianity. According to Ginsberg, Christianity was burdensome because of the constant fear of being sent to hell instead of heaven. He wished people to accept that “Buddha's a help, promises ordinary mind no nirvana --”(inspirationalstories), which meant that believing in the Buddha will set people free and maintain an “ultimate peace of mind” (shareyouressays). Ginsberg not only speculated about the peace aspect of the Buddhism, he also considered other concepts that dealt with Buddhism, such as Karma. Ginsberg wrote a poem called “World Karma”, found in White Shroud Poems 1980-1985. The whole poem consists of wrongdoings that countries all over the world have committed. Ginsberg mentions places like China, and how “the First Han Emperor..[buried] his armies alive”; “Russia has Czars & Stalin”; “Spain always killed bulls & loved blood”, and more (Ginsberg 71). He verbally responded to these acts in his poem by promising that America would “not regret the necessity to kill you or anyone who disagrees” (Ginsberg 71) because that

He no longer conformed to the way society wanted him to be. He stepped away from the crowd and became someone who he had struggled to be. Knowing people’s fears of stepping out of their comfort zone, he thought that he could set them free by being a visionary poet. This would take time, but after lots of dedication, he believed that eventually “...the infinite and eternal would become visible” (angelfire). He was ambitious to reveal that there was more to life than what society was presenting to people, by opening the doors to new opportunities and freedom through his poetry. Still, he was aware that ranting, alone, in his poems would not have the same effect as William Blake’s poetry had on him. He accordingly “utilize[d] the rhythms” (angelfire) that Blake used to bring out the same reactions from the audience to his poems that he had when reciting Blake’s poetry. He needed to “...write during a prophetic, illuminative seizure…..to be in such a state of blissful consciousness that any language emanating from that state will strike a responsive chord of blissful consciousness from any other body into which the words enter and vibrate” (Amerika 64). In this way, Ginsberg refused to write mundane words on a page and call it poetry; instead, his poetry would be a “...symbolic energy of transformation…” (angelfire). Before discovering William Blake’s poetry, Ginsberg felt like an outcast and unwanted. After