Allen+Ginsberg

** Authors: Alec, Noah, Paul, and Felicity ** = =
 * //Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)//**

** Allen Ginsberg was a widely acclaimed American poet and the leader of the Beat literary movement. He wrote many highly political poems, including “Howl”, one of his best-known works. Ginsberg was born in New Jersey on June 3, 1926 into a Jewish family. His father was an English teacher, and his mother suffered from mental instability. Throughout his childhood, Ginsberg admired Walt Whitman, an American poet and writer. When he became old enough, he attended Columbia University to study labor law. Here he got his love for politics, hence causing many of his poems to be politically based. Ginsberg also led the Beat literary movement in the 1950’s. Its main cultural element included experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, an interest in Eastern religion, and a rejection of materialism. His mother died in 1956 in a mental hospital. He continued to write and travel around the world. Writing during this period a well known novel //Naked Lunch,// in 1959. His poetry remained a great influence on people where ever he went and his recent poems were often published in areas he was visiting. He kept seeing new places dispite growing health problems, like diabetes and the aftereffects **** of a stroke. He died on April 5, 1997 in New York from liver cancer. During his lifetime **** he taught English at the Brooklyn College. **** Ginsberg also helped to found the Jack Kerouac **** School of Disembodied Poetics. Allen **** Ginsberg has become a very impactful poet in the history of **** America. **

[[image:thepoetryplace/Ginsberg-1.jpg align="right" caption="Allen Ginsberg"]]
** railroad yard in San Jose ** ** I wandered desolate ** ** in front of a tank factory ** ** and sat on a bench ** ** near the switchman's shack. **

** A flower lay on the hay on ** ** the asphalt highway ** ** --the dread hay flower I thought--It had a ** ** brittle black stem and ** ** corolla of yellowish dirty ** ** spikes like Jesus' inchlong **** ‍ **** ‍ **** ‍ ** ** crown, and a soiled dry center cotton tuft‍ **** ‍ **** ‍ ** ** like a used shaving brush ** ** that's been lying under ** ** the garage for a year. **

** Y **** ellow, yellow flower, and ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** flower of industry, ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** tough spiky ugly flower, ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** flower nonetheless, ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** with the form of the great yellow ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Rose in your brain! ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** This is the flower of the World. **

**-Allen Ginsberg**

media type="file" key="Allen-Ginsberg_Photostory_2[1].wmv" width="300" height="300"

= = = **//Links//** =

Sources Cited

Allen Ginsberg Photos