Collected Poems 1947-1980

Rating:
Summary: overrated
Review: I reacted to the news of Ginsberg's death in much the same way that Edward Fitzgerald reacted to the news of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death. Ginsberg is overrated. This in itself is not catastrophic, but he has also exercised too great an influence on other poets, who have mistaken, as Strunk and White would say, spontaneity for genius. I have seen "Howl" praised by one reviewer as "the ONLY brilliant American poem in existence," apparently forgetful that there was once a book called "Leaves of Grass," among others; which shows that the grounds on which Ginsberg is praised are often too filmsy to offer real support.

Rating:
Summary: Simply phenomenal
Review: One of the previous reviewers asked "how many people have actually sat down and tried to read this stuff?"--I have, and millions of others. I despise you ADD wannabe literature experts. Have you ever read "Howl"?! The first time I read it, I experienced an enamor of poetry at a level I'd never before thought possible. Since that day, I've made time to frequently explore this book, and I never put it down disappointed. It is teeming with brilliant poetry. While some may profess a greater attraction to his works than others, only one incapable of recognizing the inexplicable beauty of carefully-crafted art would give this such a crude review.

Rating:
Summary: Greatest American poet
Review: Sure Ginsberg wasn't as revolutionary or academic as TS Eliot or John Ashbery, but Ginsberg successfully intertwined his personal experiences with societies experiences in a way rarely achieved. His most famous poems, "Kaddish" and "Howl," are landmark works, as full of frustration as "The Wasteland," but in a smoother and more beautiful form of poetics. Some of his lesser known later poems like "Kral Majales" again blur the lines between major world happenings and personal experience. Although some of his poetry of the 1970's is a bit too political and unpersonal for my taste, this collection of essential poetry is the most important collection of poetry since Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass." Ginsberg was handed the torch by Blake and Whitman, and formed a poetics that changed America forever.

Rating:
Summary: Words, not howls.
Review: This is the third and probably final poetry review from Wolfie and Kansas, the boonie dogs from Toto, Guam. (We've previously reviewed "Unleashed: Poems by Writer's Dogs" and "O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil [Scooter] Rizzuto", but we'll be switching over to prose soon.) We pawed this book off the shelf because we heard it featured a poem entitled "Howl". We thought that it might be like some of the poems we've composed, and that perhaps the collection might include related poems, like "Bark", "Growl", "Whine" and "Yelp". However, "Howl" and all the other poems in this volume are composed merely of human words, not real howls. Also, this book is well over 800 pages, including notes and index, making it difficult for anyone smaller than a Great Dane to carry it around in their mouth. Still, in any collection this long, anyone is bound to find some poems they like. We did. Also, the feature poem, "Howl", does have sort of a howling tempo. Much of this poem concerns the antics and adventures of stray humans. Given the way that boonie dogs like us are routinely "put to sleep" and "fixed" at "shelters", we like the references to the use of lobotomies, electricity and hydrotherapy for stray humans at the human pounds. On the whole, we would recommend this book to any species that has the two hands needed to lug it around