How the Works of Walt Whitman Influenced the Works of Allan Ginsberg

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How the Works of Walt Whitman Influenced the Works of Allen Ginsberg
Walt Whiteman is a renowned American poet, journalist and essayist. Whiteman is among the most influential poets in the United States of America. He was very controversial in his works during his time especially in the collection of poems named Leaves of Grass that was published in 1855. His sexually is usually discussed in line with his poetry as he is referred to be bisexual or homosexual due to this feelings ant attraction. In addition, he had interest in politics and strongly opposed slavery in America. He was born in 1819 and was a son to Walter Whiteman who was a house builder. Walt started his works at a very tender age when he was still learning the printer’s trade. Walt also contributed a lot in teaching and was also the founder of Long-Islander a weekly newspaper. Therefore in the field of poetry, Walt is regarded as the father of free verse due to his prolific skills. On the Other hand, Ginsberg is among the most appreciated and celebrated American poets during his time. The poet was born in the year 1926 at a place by the name Newark in New Jersey. In his works, Ginsberg incorporated other two writers, Burroughs and Kerouac and formed a trio in which they became popular during their generational time due to their eccentric views. However, he became more popular in the year 1956 after publishing Howl and other poems which was a tradition of Walt Whiteman’s. This paper is focused on the poetic works of Walt Whiteman and how he later impacted on the work of Allen Ginsberg.
The works of Whiteman greatly influenced the work of Ginsberg in the poetic art in the later years. This is evident from the work of Ginsberg that is in line with some of the topics and issues that Whiteman addressed during his time. For instance, Ginsberg published Howl a long lined poem that was based on the tradition of Walt Whiteman. This indicates that Ginsberg was greatly influenced by Whiteman’s works and hence he had to apply some of the skills from Whiteman’s works and incorporate the same in his work as well. In this case, Howl is a poem that uses raw and honest language and has been considered to be very controversial as it has been both criticized positively and negatively by other scholars (Galens 23). The poem has also been characterized as one that explains the revolutionary events taking place in America. To some, the poem was a whipped-up state of excitement. The impact of Howl was highly appreciated and celebrated by many critics in America. In addition some negative critics were not stunned by the poems raw language and how it openly criticized things. In addition the poem became very controversial due to the graphical sexual language that was used in the poem hence led to the arrest of the publisher of the poem. This was because of it being considered to be obscene (Gellert 15). However, in a ruling by the judge on the poem controversy, the judge considered the poem not to be obscene. The ideas of Ginsberg in the Howl poem greatly influenced a popular culture in America in the 1960s. Therefore, from the way the poem Howl was written by Ginsberg, it is evident that some of the ideas used i...