Allen Ginsberg's poem Kaddish - Book Report/Review Example

 Allen Ginsberg's 'Kaddish' Introduction Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish, as an emotional and psychological catharsis and an exploration of the complex life of Ginsberg and his mother, exemplifies the complexity of human subjectivity. This paper explores that complexity in terms of three questions: on whether Ginsberg portrays his mother in a negative or positive frame, in the end; on Ginsberg's feelings relating to mortality in general and his mother's demise in particular; and a look on process and instances in Kaddish that reflects Kerouac's prescription for writing spontaneously. This paper posits that in general, the poem paints a positive picture of Ginsberg's mother; that Ginsberg's feelings toward death and the death of his mother are fraught with intense contradiction, pain, and unresolved emotions; and that the poem, through examples, is able to show the impact of a spontaneous style of writing to unearth those inner contradictions and try to grasp some meaning and beauty in them (Ginsberg; Aull; Asher; Swanson). Discussion In response to the first question, one can say that ultimately, Ginsberg painted his mother Naomi in a positive light. By this one means that the interior life of the mother is reflected in the depth and intensity of the thoughts, reflections, and feelings that Ginsberg showed in the writing of the poem. In the end one gets the impression that the prayer for the dead, which is what a kaddish is, is really an intensely personal homage and a poem of devotion. At the same time this homage is not something that is thought out in the form of an organized thesis, logical and well-reasoned, but something that is evoked and is spontaneously arrived at, like a kind of groping and a grasping for meaning and sincerity deep in the psyche of Ginsberg himself. The positive evocation of the memory of the mother is evident in the Hymn (Ginsberg; Aull; Asher; Swanson): Blessed be you Naomi in tears! Blessed be you Naomi in fears! Blessed Blessed in sickness! Blessed be you Naomi in Hospitals! Blessed be you Naomi in solitude! Blest be your triumph! Blest be your bars! Blest be your last years' loneliness! Blest be your failure! Blest be your stroke! Blest be the close of your eye! (Ginsberg). In response to the second question, Ginsberg's feelings towards his mother and her death are ambivalent and shifting, with guilt mixed in with a sense of loss, pity, and a host of other negative emotions associated with a lack of closure and an inability to finally fathom and deal with an incomprehensible fate and a sad death. To lose a mother is never easy for anyone, and in the case of Ginsberg and Naomi, the tragic circumstances of the life of Naomi seemed to have brought out a complex of feelings that he tried to bring to the fore and express in the poem. This spills over into a sometimes philosophical and sometimes tragic view of life too (Aull; Asher; Swanson; Ginsberg): All the accumulations of life, that wear us out—clocks, bodies, consciousness, shoes, breasts—begotten sons—your Communism—‘Paranoia’ into hospitals. You once kicked Elanor in the leg, she died of heart failure later. You of stroke. Asleep? within a year, the two of you, sisters in death. Is Elanor happy? (Ginsberg) In response to the third question, spontaneous writing as described by Kerouac is characterized in part by free association and the spontaneous putting to words thoughts as they arise from the mind, with little or no screening, and in hopes of bringing out truths that could otherwise escape the more rational mind and the more repressed personality. It is a kind of catharsis, and In Ginsberg every line seems to ooze out of a kind of trance, where the poet seems to be only partly aware of the shape and form of his poem, letting his emotions and his intuitions take him wherever they may lead. Below is an example (Ginsberg): In the world, given, flower maddened, made no Utopia, shut under pine, almed in Earth, balmed in Lone, Jehovah, accept. Nameless, One Faced, Forever beyond me, beginningless, endless, Father in death. Tho I am not there for this Prophecy, I am unmarried, I’m hymnless, I’m Heavenless, headless in blisshood I would still adore Thee, Heaven, after Death, only One blessed in Nothingness, not light or darkness, Dayless Eternity— (Ginsberg). A second example is given below (Ginsberg): Toward education marriage nervous breakdown, operation, teaching school, and learning to be mad, in a dream—what is this life? Toward the Key in the window—and the great Key lays its head of light on top of Manhattan, and over the floor, and lays down on the sidewalk—in a single vast beam, moving, as I walk down First toward the Yiddish Theater—and the place of poverty (Ginsberg) A third example is given below (Ginsberg): Magnificent, mourned no more, marred of heart, mind behind, married dreamed, mortal changed—Ass and face done with murder. In the world, given, flower maddened, made no Utopia, shut under pine, almed in Earth, balmed in Lone, Jehovah, accept. (Ginsberg) Conclusion This paper examined the complex relationship between Ginsberg and her mother in the context of three questions: one with regard to the poet's overall assessment of Ginsberg mother and her life; two with regard to the poet's feelings towards death in general and the death of his mother in particular; and three with regard to the way spontaneous writing is demonstrated in the poem, and what the writing style's impact is. Ginsberg in the end paints her mother and their relationship in a positive light, demonstrating an extreme ambivalence and showing a host of very intense emotions with regard to her death and death in general. He does this with great impact using a spontaneous writing style in the tradition of Kerouac. Indeed, the poem is able to provide a glimpse of the complex relationship between mother and son, signifying too that subjective reality is complex and ultimately difficult to grasp in full (Ginsberg; Aull; Asher; Swanson; Maseng). . Works Cited Asher, Levi. “Kaddish”. Literary Kicks. 18 October 1994. Web. 30 October 2013. Aull, Felice. “Ginsberg, Allen Kaddish”. Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database. 1997. Web. 30 October 2013. Ginsberg, Allen. “Kaddish”. The Portable Beat Reader, Ann Charters (ed). 1992. Penguin. Maseng, Jonathan. “Saying 'Allen Ginsberg's Kaddish' at UCLA. Jewish Journal. 10 April 2013. Web. 30 October 2013. Swanson, Abbie Fentress. “Allen Ginsberg's 'Kaddish' Gets One-Man Show Treatment”. WNYC. 29 September 2011. Web. 30 October 2013. Read More