Thanks to cris n simon for moving and useful posts on AG's death. The
general niminy-piminy nature of the UK press is noted, and no surprise.
But Thom Gunn's _A Record: Allen Ginsberg's Poetry_ (in _Shelf Life_ 1996)
puts it straight:
"[AG's _Collected Poems_] is an *enjoyable* book, informed by a continual
honesty of intention and execution, by a constant energy of attack, by
humanity of spirit and wild humor, and by aspirations towards ecstasy and
vision that may recall to us earlier claims and prerogatives of poetry
forgotten in the age of Larkin. It is a record of a career I find more
exeplary with each succeeding year."
I was in the Czech Republic when the news broke, with AG's Czech
translator and others for whom he'd been a presence, a light in times when
there wasn't much light. Their real grief and sense of loss reminded me
what a great job he made of being a Figure, and what a light, human touch
he carried it off with. May we all be remembered with such affection and
admiration.
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Richard Caddel
Durham University Library, Stockton Rd., Durham DH1 3LY, UK
E-mail: R.I.Caddel @ durham.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)191 374 3044 Fax: +44 (0)191 374 7481
WWW: http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dul0ric
"Words! Pens are too light. Take a chisel to write."
- Basil Bunting
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