Voice of the Poet: Allen Ginsberg

Rating:
Summary: Ginsberg reads Ginsberg
Review: This volume in the "Voice of the Poet" series is a true luxury. The sound quality on the CD is excellent and "White Shroud" is performed to music by Steven Taylor. Nobody reads Ginsberg better than Ginsberg.

The collection contains twelve poems written over the course of the poet's life. The earliest, "Song", was written in 1954, a year before "Howl", the poem that made Ginsberg (in)famous and later resulted in his publisher being arrested for obscenity.

In his later years, he saw the world turn full circle back to the grey, censorious society he had raged against in the 1950's. "After Lalon", written in 1992, mourns a life squandered on "pretty words." Perhaps that is all any poet can do, cast a feeble light in the gloom.

Ginsberg performed all twelve poems in full at the Knitting Factory in 1995:

* Song (1954)
* Howl (1955 - 1956)
* Footnote to Howl (1955)
* A Supermarket in California (1955)
* Sunflower Mantra (1955)
* My Sad Self (1958)
* Wales Visitation (1967)
* Sad Dust Glories (1974)
* Plutonium Ode (1978)
* White Shroud (1983)
* Personals Ad (1987)
* After Lalon (1992)

Professor Allen Ginsberg of Brooklyn College, New York, died in 1997.

Rating:
Summary: Ginsberg reads Ginsberg
Review: This volume in the "Voice of the Poet" series is a true luxury. The sound quality on the CD is excellent and "White Shroud" is performed to music by Steven Taylor. Nobody reads Ginsberg better than Ginsberg.

The collection contains twelve poems written over the course of the poet's life. The earliest, "Song", was written in 1954, a year before "Howl", the poem that made Ginsberg (in)famous and later resulted in his publisher being arrested for obscenity.

In his later years, he saw the world turn full circle back to the grey, censorious society he had raged against in the 1950's. "After Lalon", written in 1992, mourns a life squandered on "pretty words." Perhaps that is all any poet can do, cast a feeble light in the gloom.

Ginsberg performed all twelve poems in full at the Knitting Factory in 1995:

* Song (1954)
* Howl (1955 - 1956)
* Footnote to Howl (1955)
* A Supermarket in California (1955)
* Sunflower Mantra (1955)
* My Sad Self (1958)
* Wales Visitation (1967)
* Sad Dust Glories (1974)
* Plutonium Ode (1978)
* White Shroud (1983)
* Personals Ad (1987)
* After Lalon (1992)

Professor Allen Ginsberg of Brooklyn College, New York, died in 1997.