Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg: A Story of Influences - Alexandre Ferrere

Résumé En

The well-known link between Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman comes from both Ginsberg's readers and Ginsberg himself. One of the first explicit mentions of Walt Whitman in Ginsberg's published poetry is to be found in a 1954 poem entitled "Siesta in Xbalba And Return to the States" 1 : […]-Returning armed with New Testament critic of horse and mule tanned and bearded satisfying Whitman, concerned With a few Traditions metrical, mystical, manly. .. and certain characteristic flaws enough! This poem is composed at a time when Ginsberg was traveling through various cities of Mexico; the first part was more precisely composed between Mexico and San Francisco, the second part was composed between Guanajuato and Los Angeles. The mention of Uxmal in the poem matches an entry of his personal journals of that time 2 (January 12 th , 1954 Uxmal). According to John Lardas and his Spenglerian study of Ginsberg's poetry, this particular poem can be read as "America's position in the grand scheme of historical cycles" 3 because the very place of Xbalba is both "the Place of Death and the Place of Regenerative Powers" 4 in Mayan mythology. This idea of a wonderful land saved from a downfall is, of course, significant in