Quote:
Originally Posted by R. S. Gwynn
AG's father, Louis, was a traditional poet in the Poetry Society mode. I've seen a few things here and there. Is Allen's early work available online? His first teacher was Mark Van Doren, who was very traditional, and I've heard that AG's early Columbia poetry was in the metaphysical style. I guess I can look it up.
https://scarriet.wordpress.com/category/louis-ginsberg/
(Added in: no luck finding AG's student poems online) |
I have Ginsberg's Collected Poems 1947-1980. In the notes section it says that in his college days Ginsberg wrote "imitations of Marlowe, Marvell, and Donne (and Hart Crane)". I searched for the first poem on offer, and it seems to be in at least three places.
Here's the poem:
A Modest Proposal
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will some old pleasures prove.
Men like me have paid in verse
This costly courtesy, or curse;
But I would bargain with my art
(As to the mind, now to the heart),
My symbols, images, and signs
Please me more outside these lines.
For your share and recompense,
You will be taught another sense:
The wisdom of the subtle worm
Will turn most perfect in your form.
Not that your soul need tutored be
By intellectual decree,
But graces that the mind can share
Will make you, as more wise, more fair,
Till all the world's devoted thought
Find all in you it ever sought,
And even I, of skeptic mind,
A Resurrection of a kind.
This compliment, in my own way,
For what I would receive, I pay;
Thus all the wise have writ thereof,
And all the fair have been their love.
- A.G. 1947
The page I copied from is
this one.
The author of the blog made two typos, which I've fixed. But that's not the funny thing. Look at her name. It's Kristina. Where's my tinfoil hat!
There are only 4 poems from Ginsberg's college days. The second one is an imitation of Marvell, the third looks and sounds like Donne and Cowley, and the fourth is a long poem in very archaic octaves.
I've typed out the first stanza from the second poem, which looks & sounds (sort of) like Donne and Cowley:
xxxxLet not the sad perplexity
xxxxOf absent love unhumor thee:
xxSighs, tears, and oaths, and laughter I have spent
To make my play with thee resolve in merriment;
xxxxFor wisest critics past agree
xxxxThe truest love is comedy.
Will thou not weary of the tragic argument?