Beat Poetry
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Beat Poetry is usually considered a San Francisco phenomenon. It also had a strong base (as most US counter culture movements do) in New York, and was greatly influenced by European poets and by non-Beat american poets such as William Carlos Williams, not to mention jazz musicians of the time.
The major point of Beat poetry is to break down pre-established notions about poetry (ie, poetry should rhyme, poetry should have rhythm, poetry should be about the poet's personal life, poetry should not be accompanied by a three peice jazz band, poetry should not be frank about homoerotic experiences, etc.). To a great extent it still does this. Lawrence Ferlenghetti, for instance, now publishes a weekly column in a San Francisco newspaper to prove his assertion that poetry is news.
Names to remember when looking up beat poetry include Lawrence Ferlinghetti (poet and owner of the VERY important beat bookstore/publishing house "City Lights), Allen Ginsberg (wrote Howl which Ferlinghetti published, after which the two of them stood trial because the FBI concidered the poem obscene and tried to have it banned. This is one raunchy poem, those who object to graphic images of homosexuality are encouraged to read it and have their brains fried), and Jack Kerouac (poet and prose author who wrote "The Naked Lunch"). There are women you should know about, too. Lots of them. So many that there's a whole book entitled "Women of the Beat Generation" sitting on my desk. Perhaps another entry will be in order when I have.
