• Beat poetry evolved during the 1940s in both New York City and on the west coast, although San
Francisco became the heart of the movement in the early 1950s.
• The end of World War II left poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and
Gregory Corso questioning mainstream politics and culture.
• These poets would become known as the Beat generation, a group of writers interested in
changing consciousness and defying conventional writing.
• The Beats were also closely intertwined with poets of the San Francisco Renaissance movement,
such as Kenneth Rexroth and Robert Duncan.
The battle against social conformity and literary tradition was central to the work of the Beats.
•A group of American poets and novelists who formed a close knit association in the second half of
1950s and early decades of 1960s. They rejected the mainstream American values and
experimented with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality. They favored unrestricted selfrealization and self-expression. The cultural phenomenon that they inspired was later sometimes
called "beatniks"
• Spiritual liberation, sexual "revolution" or "liberation," i.e., gay liberation, somewhat catalyzing women's
liberation, black liberation, Gray Panther activism.
•Liberation of the word from censorship.
•Demystification and/or decriminalization of some laws against marijuana and other drugs.
•The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll as a high art form, as evidenced by the Beatles, Bob
Dylan, and other popular musicians influenced in the later fifties and sixties by Beat generation poets' and
writers' works.
•The spread of ecological consciousness, emphasized early on by Gary Snyder and Michael McClure, the notion
of a "Fresh Planet."
•Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization, as emphasized in writings of Burroughs, Huncke,
Ginsberg, and Kerouac.
•Attention to what Kerouac called (after Spengler) a "second religiousness" developing within an advanced
civilization.
•Return to an appreciation of idiosyncrasy as against state regimentation.
•Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures, as proclaimed by Kerouac in his slogan from On the
Road 'The Earth is an Indian thing.'
• Metaphors
• Imagery
• Reference to the past
• Diction
• Allusion
• Free Verse
• Use of Romanticism
• Use of Early American sources
• Use of Modernism
• March 26, 1930 Born in New York’s Greenwich Village
• His parents were teenage Italian parents
• Lived in orphanages/foster homes
• Two years after living with his father he ran away
• Spent several months in NYC Jail; he was a witness
for theft trail.
• Spent three months at Bellevue Hospital
• At the age 16; sentenced to three years at Clinton
State Prison where he began to write poems
• Started reading Classics and the dictionary
1950; introduced to experimental poetry 1954; Moved
to Boston
• First Poems were published in Harvard Advocate in
1954
• His first book was “The Vestal Lady on Brattle and
Other Poems” in 1955 San Francisco; performed
readings/interviews
.
Last night I drove a car
not knowing how to drive
not owning a car
I drove and knocked down
people I loved
...went 120 through one town.
I stopped at Hedgeville
and slept in the back seat
...excited about my new life.
“not knowing how to drive, not owning a car”
•
He never had anyone in his life that was there for him, so he had to do things on his own
which caused him to go down the wrong path.
•
It could also symbolize that the speaker is taking control of their life and doing things that
they have never done before.
“I drove and knocked down people I loved”
•
By doing the things he did, he disappointed the people that he loved and cared about. He
made some bad decisions too fast causing him to not really care about who he hurt in the
process.
“…went 120 through one town.”
•
This line is explaining how fast the events were happening in the speaker’s life.
•
Even though the poem is so simple and straight to the point it has a deeper meaning that a
reader that is young because in the poem it seems as though the speaker is ready and
willing to do anything just to experience having his independence and freedom.
Born: June 3, 1926
Place of Birth: Newark, New Jersey
Died: April 5, 1997
Place of Death: East Village, New York City
Went to Colombia University where the Beat
Movement began.
His wife Naomi was a radical Communist
and irrepressible nudist who went tragically
insane in early adulthood.
Allen's home life was dominated by his
mother's bizarre and frightening episodes
Influence: Walt Whitman (the original
Beatnik)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Howl and Other Poems
With introduction by William Carlos Williams.
City Lights, 1956.
A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley
Grabhorn Press, 1963.
Reality Sandwiches: 1953-1960
City Lights, 1963.
The Change
Writer's Forum, 1963.
Sometimes when my eyes are red
I go up on top of the RCA Building
and gaze at my world, Manhattan—
my buildings, streets I’ve done feats in,
lofts, beds, coldwater flats
—on Fifth Ave below which I also bear in mind,
its ant cars, little yellow taxis, men
walking the size of specks of wool—
Panorama of the bridges, sunrise over Brooklyn machine,
sun go down over New Jersey where I was born
& Paterson where I played with ants—
my later loves on 15th Street,
my greater loves of Lower East Side,
my once fabulous amours in the Bronx
faraway—
paths crossing in these hidden streets,
my history summed up, my absences
and ecstasies in Harlem—
—sun shining down on all I own
in one eyeblink to the horizon
in my last eternity—
matter is water.
•
•
•
Poems for Freddie, 1966
Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems, City Lights, 1990
Selected Poems: 1956-1975, North Atlantic Books, Plainfield,
1975
•
•
•
Born in Brooklyn in 1934
Joined the Beat movement in the late 1960’s
Became a bridge between the Beat Movement and the later
hippie movement through her writing and editing of other
writers
Taught poetry alongside Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs,
and Gregory Corso at the Jack Kerouac School of
Disembodied Poetics
Now lives in California, near San Francisco
By this time, she has written over four dozen books of poetry,
some of which have been translated in more than 20
languages
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Poems for Freddie, 1966
Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems, City Lights, 1990
Selected Poems: 1956-1975,
North Atlantic Books, Plainfield, 1975
you are my bread
and the hairline
noise
of my bones
you are almost
the sea
you are not stone
or molten sound
I think
you have no hands
this kind of bird flies backward
and this love
breaks on a windowpane
where no light talks
this is not time
for crossing tongues
(the sand here
never shifts)
I think
tomorrow
turned you with his toe
and you will
shine
and shine
unspent and underground
•
•
•
•
•
•
Born in Yonkers, New York 1919
He spent his early childhood in France
Received his BA from the University of North Carolina
Received his MA from Columbia University
Received his PhD from the Sorbonne in Paris
He served in the US NAVAL Reserve and was sent to
Nagasaki shortly after it was bombed.
• He has translated the work of a number of poets
including Nicanor Parra, Jacques Prevert, and Pier
Paolo Pasolini. Ferlinghetti is also the author more
than eight plays and of the novels Love in the Days of
Rage (1988) and Her (1966).
Books
Poems
• These Are My Rivers: New & Selected • Her (1960)
Poems, 1955-1993 (1993),
Starting from San Francisco (1961)
Unfair Arguments with Existence
• Over All the Obscene Boundaries:
European Poems & Transitions (1984), (1963)
Routines (1964)
• Who Are We Now? (1976),
The Secret Meaning of Things (1969)
• The Secret Meaning of Things (1969),
Tyrannus Nix? (1969)
• A Coney Island of the Mind (1958).
Great Oracle, why are you staring at me, do I
the rich and the poor in whom Walt
baffle you, do I make you despair? I,
Whitman heard America singing
Americus, the American, wrought from the O long-silent Sybil, you of the winged dreams,
dark in my mother long ago, from the dark
Speak out from your temple of light as the
of ancient Europa–
serious constellations with Greek names
Why are you staring at me now in the dusk of
still stare down on us as a lighthouse moves
our civilization-- Why are you staring at me its megaphone over the sea Speak out and
as if I were America itself the new Empire
shine upon us the sea-light of Greece the
vaster than any in ancient days with its
diamond light of Greece
electronic highways carrying its corporate Far-seeing Sybil, forever hidden, Come out of
monoculture around the world And
your cave at last And speak to us in the
English the Latin of our days–
poet's voice the voice of the fourth person
Great Oracle, sleeping through the centuries,
singular the voice of the inscrutable future
Awaken now at last And tell us how to save
the voice of the people mixed with a wild
us from ourselves and how to survive our
soft laughter-- And give us new dreams to
own rulers who would make a plutocracy of
dream, Give us new myths to live by!
our democracy in the Great Divide between
This poem is referring to the Oracle at Delphi.
•
Dating back to 1400 BC, the Oracle of Delphi was the most important shrine in all Greece,
and in theory all Greeks respected its independence.
•
People came from all over Greece and beyond to have their questions about the future
answered by the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo. And her answers, usually cryptic, could
determine the course of everything from when a farmer planted his seedlings, to when an
empire declared war.
Tone
•
In the first two stanza, Ferlinghetti makes this poem sound distressing , asking for help
•
In the 3rd-5th stanza, the tone became more of a hopeful, bright-sided mood.
You can see this because in the beginning, Ferlinghetti is always asking the Oracle why are you… and
later on you can see that he begins to hope and ask for some great deed to happen that’ll help
everyone out.
Repetition
1st stanza Great Oracle, why are you staring at me & 2nd stanza Why are you staring at me…
Great Oracle, why are you staring at me, do I baffle you, do I make you despair? I, Americus, the
American, wrought from the dark in my mother long ago, from the dark of ancient Europa–
• Asking a rhetorical question to the oracle
• His country America changed its way once was like Europe, never ending fights and wars.
Why are you staring at me now in the dusk of our civilization-- Why are you staring at me as if I were
America itself the new Empire vaster than any in ancient days with its electronic highways
carrying its corporate monoculture around the world And English the Latin of our days–
• Judging the way people are living now in their current era.
• Comparing America to the old ancient traditions of Europe (Greek and Romans)
– Idea of regressing back in time
Great Oracle, sleeping through the centuries, Awaken now at last And tell us how to save us from
ourselves and how to survive our own rulers who would make a plutocracy of our democracy in
the Great Divide between the rich and the poor in whom Walt Whitman heard America singing
• Asking the oracle a way to save America from further more corrupting it’s’ country through
the rich and the poor.
• A reference to one of the influential to the beat generation
Far-seeing Sybil, forever hidden, Come out of your cave at last And speak to us in the poet's voice the
voice of the fourth person singular the voice of the inscrutable future the voice of the people
mixed with a wild soft laughter-• Sybil is being compared to this mystical force or creature.
• A new leader coming out and giving the people voice over their opinion.
And give us new dreams to dream, Give us new myths to live by!
• It is asking this mythical creature to grant them their dream so that they may create new
dream to live by.
How it fits in the movement?
•
This poem fits into the movement because they are unwilling to reform for the government.
The beatniks wanted freedom for everything. This whole movement is about liberation and
acceptance to the people.
• In Ferlinghetti’s To the Oracle of Delphi, he compared to the American society
to the Dark ages of Europa. In a well written essay, describe how you have
once regressed back in life through the use of figurative language.
• In a paragraph, describe how you would feel if you were born during the Beat
Generation. How would that impact the way you view society today? Would it
be bad or good? Explain why or why not.
1.
Where did the Beat Movement begin ?
A.
B.
C.
D.
2.
Colombia University
Harvard University
Oxford University
Rice University
What was the importance of Drug use during the Beat Generation?
A.
B.
C.
D.
3.
To gain new perspective in life
Enhances creativity, insight, and productivity
Everyone was doing it
Experimentation led to new things
Which of the theme was NOT part of the Beat Generation
A.
B.
C.
D.
Liberation of the word from censorship
Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization
Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures
Traveling the world and experiencing new perspective
4.
Which author mentioned was a bridge between the Beat Movement and
the later hippie movement?
A.
B.
C.
Allen Ginsberg
Gregory Corso
Diane Di Prima
5.
True of False: The Beat Generation was a peaceful one, that’s why it’s
compared to the Hippie Movement all the time.
6.
Which poet was not from the first wave of the Beat Generation?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Gregory Corso
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Diane Di Prima
Allen Ginsberg
• http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-sad-self/
• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gregorycorso
• http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/409
• http://www.beatmuseum.org/ginsberg/Ginsberg
Works.html
• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179385