Allen Ginsberg’s Psalm

March 20, 2018Simon Pettet

[“”Ah, but to have seen the Dove of still/Divinity..” – (Allen Ginsberg) – see above – painting by Jack Kerouac]

continuing from yesterday

AG: Okay, I’ll finish this (poem) [“Psalm”], it’s not that much, I’m going to read it through and we’ll have it – “And I write shadow changes into bone/To say that still Word, the prophetic image/Beyond our present strength of flesh to bear./ Incarnate in the rain as in the sea./Watches out for us out of our eyes/What sweet dream to be some incorruptible/Divinity, corporeal without a name,/Suffering metamorphosis of flesh/  Holy are the Visions of the … Read More

Spontaneous Poetics – 36 (Reading-List 7) – (John Dryden)

February 13, 2013admin

Student: Allen, can you speak up, please?

AG: Yes. (John) Dryden. “In Memory of Mr. Oldham” [“To The Memory of Mr. Oldham“] by John Dryden, is just one single poem that gives you his quality. There is a long poem, the name of which, I’ve forgotten, which ends “Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall/ And universal darkness buries All”. [Allen is confused here, this is actually the concluding couplet of Alexander Pope‘s “The Dunciad”] Do you know what that is?
Student: “To St.Cecilia” [“A Song For St. Cecilia’s Day”]
AG: Is … Read More