it's by Allen Ginsberg, who's one of the fathers of what is called the beat generation (from which the term 'beatnik' is derived). the beatniks were inspired by jazz and were bohemian rebels. beat means down and out, tired, exhausted of life. they were immersed in the drug culture, and a lot of the writings produced by them were written under the influence.
a picture of the crazy SOB.anyway, in the lecture today, we listened to a poem written and read by Ginsberg himself called 'America'. a snippet:
'America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
America I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.'
'I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came home from Russia.'
it's pretty long, but anyway. i loved it! we weren't studying him actually. we were studying his friend, John Kerouac, who wrote 'On the Road'. Apparently he wrote this on a scroll while under the influence of some drug or other, but the edition we have now was edited quite a bit. the original scroll's been bought by Johnny Depp.
if only i could write something as crazy as that. but i'm too bland a girl! what a pity.
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