Collected Poems 1947-1980

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Summary: Comprehensive coverage of the enfant terrible.
Review: A bizarre mixture of Blake, Whitman and Williams, Allen Ginsbergs poetry has at the same time lampooned as the scribings of a mentally unstable homosexual and praised as the musings of an American genius. Whatever the take, Ginsberg is certainly enagaging. Chronicling everything from his own psycholgical frailty to the evils of capitalism, the trials of Judaism to buddhist meditation, "sprawling" hardly begins to describe the breadth of Ginsbergs work. Indeed, he represents such a wide sphere of American consciousness and American society, that it is impossible not to be impressed by something in this volume that covers 33 years of his work. At the very least he is erratic.Most of the time, he's just down right crazy.And that's a big part of the charm.

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Summary: Some liked 'Howl' but ... I didn't
Review: Allen Ginsberg wouldn't necessarily appeal to me. For I often get lost in his thick rantings of love and tortured life. Much like his old friend Kerouac, I often don't like what I read. But still I read on, for another 'Hadda be playing on the Jukebox' but instead I'm caught up in eclectic images in slabs of prose. Although occasionally I am rewarded with another gem. Some liked 'Howl' but ... I didn't

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Summary: GINSBERG = GREAT POET
Review: Allen Ginsberg's poetry is entertaining to read. Of all of his poems in this work, "Hadda be playing on the jukebox" is by far the best. His views of past historical incidents are brought out in a profound way. Powerful stuff

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Summary: Raw, unrestricted . . . Ginsberg's works of beauty
Review: Ginsberg at his best . . . wait . . . when is he not?

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Summary: brilliant
Review: Ginsberg's startling, erratic genius is on display in this alternately inspiring and exasperating volume. I give it 5 stars because Ginsberg MUST be read and appreciated; the man changed the face of poetry, as well as pop culture, holding enormous influence over Bob Dylan, who would reinvent rock and roll and help inspire a cultural revolution. Why Ginsberg was not awarded a Nobel is astonishing to me.

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Summary: Tiresome
Review: He really was a crazy genius wasn't he? It's all great.

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Summary: Collected Poems
Review: He really was a crazy genius wasn't he? It's all great.

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Summary: I love Jack Kerouac and all his friends
Review: I am writing a report for English class and I chose Allen Ginsberg because he was one of the many influences of Jack's life. He was associated with such greats as William Borroughs and Neal Cassady, not to mention Kerouac himself. I am sure, after reading On The Road by Kerouac that I was surely born in the wrong generation and now that I have read Howl by Ginsberg I am that much more sure of the fact that I was a soul from another era. A Buddhisttava from the fourties and fifties. You must read Ginsberg and Kerouac and you will surely understand or you will be totally confused. Remember... "Suppose we suddenly woke up and realized that this and that, ain't really this and that at all."(Darmah Bums)

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Summary: Ginsberg is the ultimate
Review: I checked this book out at the library thinking that I would like one or two poems in it besides Howl. After I had read it cover to cover and was completely amazed at Ginsberg's style and complete passion, I didn't want to return it. To bad that the librarian thought differently.

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Summary: Tiresome
Review: I find Ginsberg's poetry to be extraordinarily coarse, ugly, and narcissistic. The ubiquitous references to homo-erotic themes gets really old, and frankly I just don't quite get what the big deal is with this guy. Sure, it's always been fashionable among some people to be into the Beats and all that, but how many people have actually sat down and tried to read this stuff? Ginsberg is probably the most overrated poet in the history of this country, and maybe the planet.