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Kaddish and Other Poems (Pocket Poets) (Paperback)

by Allen Ginsberg (Author)

3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 104 pages
Publisher: City Lights Books; New impression edition (Nov 1967)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0872860191
ISBN-13: 978-0872860193
Product Dimensions: 15.7 x 12.2 x 1 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 139,497 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On par with Howl, 2 Aug 2003

By	Jon Brown (a field) - See all my reviews

Howl is widely considered (perhaps justifiably) as Ginsberg's defining work. His viscious incitement of his country in the poem America is enormously affecting and the title piece epic and dazzling in it's original use of spontaneous prose. Yet if the Ginsberg reader cares to look only two years ahead he will find a work at least on par with Ginsberg's classic if not exceeding it.

Ginsberg's verse has always been lively, packed with surreal detail at times hard to make sense of. Yet in the poem Kaddish i this becomes entirely appropriate as it regards his mother Naomi who spent her years during his childhood in and out of mental hospital. It is written in the style of rapturous, nightmare epitaph, Kaddish being a jewish hymn traditionally sung at funerals. The tragedy of her death is made more affecting by the realisation that, deprived of this tradition, the poem becomes his gift to her in death.

The jewel amongst so many wonders in this collection is Laughing Gas, dedicated to Gary Snyder, whom Ginsberg informs - 'the red tin begging cup you gave me/ I lost it but its contents are undisturbed'. Here, before the poem even begins, we are given a charming little haiku (beat haiku did not always follow the 5-7-5 rule), moving in its simplicity. As for the poem itself, it charts his experiences under nitrous oxide with suitably hallucinatory imagery - 'mechanical voices over the radio singing Destination Moon'.

Ginsberg is a remarkable chronicler of the psychadelic experience and this theme comes full cycle on the trilogy of poems 'Magic Psalm', 'The Reply', and 'The End'. Ginsberg, calling on God to experience his real presence, and essentially become God, suffers under the influence of yage horrific consequences in imagery vivid with gruesome detail -'my visions falling over my eyes to cover them from sight of my skeleton'.

By time the reader finishes this collection he will feel exhausted, such is Ginsberg's affect. Yet it comes as credit to the man's talent that said reader will immediatly want to pick it up and start all over again. 'Taste my mouth in your ear' he implores. You'd be wise to do as he asks.

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3 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Garbage, utter garbage, 25 May 2006

By	J. Roberts "Jinny" (Maryland) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This was written in one non-stop 40 hour marathon session fueled by dexedrine, LSD and coffee. To many, this makes 'Kaddish' an epic testament to Ginsberg's literary talent. To me, it makes it the inane ramblings of a waffling, drug-addled mind.

Copious amounts of drugs do not an 'artist' maketh. But, this is Ginsberg we're talking about here - the most over-hyped and overrated poet in the history of poetry. The champion of drug use, loose morals and NAMBLA-promoted child abuse cannot pull the wool over my eyes. He is a talent-vaccum, a wretched human aberration, and there isn't one word of poetry in this book worthy of note. Or in 'Howl', for that matter.

AVOID!!!!!

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