e evening was the declamation ot the Allen Ginsberg. The poem initiates a §,, returning to the bardicstrophic tra- The most brillant shock of nowefunousshapsods, Hawt, by style in composition in the i dials Whitman, Artaud, Lorca, Mayakorsty, ‘il now neglected in the U.S—and improving on the tradition tothe extent of combining the long lines and coherence of Whitman, with the cubist imagery ofthe French and Spanish traditions, and adding to that a fan- tastic chythmic structure which begins on a relatively flat base of rept tion, and builds up to the rhythmic crisis ofa Bach fugue, and ends ona high peak of ecstatic elongation ofthe line structure, The poem is built ike a pyramid, in three parts, and ends in fantastic merciful tears—the protest against the dehumanizing mechanization of American culture, and an affirmation of individual particular compas- sion in the midst ofa great chant, The reading was delivered by the poet, rather surprised at his own power, drunk on the platform, becoming increasingly sober as he read, driving forward with a strange ecstatic intensity, delivering a spirimal confession to an astounded audience—ending in tears which restored to American poetry the prophetic consciousness it had lost since the con: clusion of Hart Crane’s The Bridge, another celebrated mystical work.