Beat Generation: Beaten Down to Upbeat
Beat poetry was a movement in 1950s America (though it did later spread to the UK). Beat poetry is recognisable for its themes of liberation, exploration, advancement, a pushing of boundaries, and forward thinking.
'Beat' colloquially meant tired or beaten down, which was how this post-war generation felt. It was key Beat poet Jack Kerouac who altered the meaning to include the connotations of 'upbeat', 'beatific', 'on the beat', and 'keeping beat', which captures the vitality of their poetic style. Beats were often influenced by the work of the Romantics and Pre-Raphaelites, who in their own time, rebelled against the 'Enlightenment' and growing intellectualism. The Beats rebelled against society's advances in science and technology by writing about personal, emotional, human matters.
Beat poetry fed into:
- counterculture in the 1960s
- cyberpunk genre
- Black Arts movement
- slam poetry culture
- rock and roll, pop, jazz, and punk
- the work of many novelists
Style of writing:
- 'upbeat', energetic, feverish
- bold, straightforward, expressive, frank
- free verse - immediacy of experience
- disjointed, fragmented style
- emotional, confessional tone
- themes of transgression, alienation, anarchy, sexuality
Exercise 1: Finding Our Place
Read the poem 'I Am 25' by Beat poet Gregory Corso.
With a love a madness for Shelley
Chatterton Rimbaud
and the needy-yap of my youth
has gone from ear to ear:
I HATE OLD POETMEN!
Especially old poetmen who retract
who consult other old poetmen
who speak their youth in whispers,
saying:--I did those then
but that was then
that was then--
O I would quiet old men
say to them:--I am your friend
what you once were, thru me
you'll be again--
Then at night in the confidence of their homes
rip out their apology-tongues
and steal their poems.
What do you think Corso is trying to say through this poem? Who does he mean by 'old poetmen', and what is his problem with them? How does he suggest he will counter this generational divide?
Using this poem, a poem/piece of writing by an 'old poetman' (go to almost any big anthology of classic English poetry to find this), and your favourite poem by any published writer, create a found poem. Title your poem 'I am _____' (this doesn't have to be an age), and use words/phrases/lines from the three existing pieces to create a collage which forms a complete, new poem which reveals a little about your own poetic journey. Consider how you are, like Corso, finding your place within a pantheon of great poets through history, while also being representative of your own time.
Exercise 2: Pre-Raphaelite Inspiration
I have chosen five poems from five prolific Beat poets, some of which are well known and others which are a little more obscure. From these, five rough categories have arisen:
- snapshots
- still life
- personal encounter
- self-reflection
- lamentation
Read one (or more than one) of these poems listed below, and consider which category/categories the poem(s) fits into. Do some feature-spotting (look for rhyme, metre, form, layout, word choice, poetic elements such as anaphora, alliteration, metaphor...) and work out what the poet is trying to achieve. How effective is it?
- 'Having a Coke with You', Frank O'Hara
- 'Writ on the Eve of my 32nd Birthday', Gregory Corso
- 'Howl', Allen Ginsberg
- 'A Sudden Sketch Poem', Jack Kerouac
- 'I Know A Man' Robert Creeley
Explore the artwork of the Pre-Raphaelites (inspiration for many of the Beats). Pick a piece of art which strikes you, and construct a free write about the artwork, its subject and/or setting, using the following prompts to help you if needed. How does the art make you feel? What does it remind you/make you think of? What do you think the artist wanted you to feel, and what did they want to express? If you could speak to the artists, or to the figure in the painting, what would you say? How does this artwork speak to today's world? How does you seeing this piece of art allow the artist/subject to 'be again' (look back to Corso's 'I Am 25')?
Use this free write to construct a Beat style poem, keeping in mind the categories listed above (snapshots, still life, ect).
Exercise 3: Consequences
This game aims to achieve the same spontaneous, digressive, disjointed (and sometimes nonsensical) style of the Beat poets. Ideally, it should be played by a large group of poets, but it can theoretically be played by three, or even two, poets.
- On a piece of paper, the first poet will write two lines of a poem. They will then pass this to the next poet.
- The next poet will read these two lines, then follow on by adding another two. They will then fold the piece of paper, covering all but their last line. They will then pass this to the next poet.
- Using the one visible line, the next poet will write two more follow-on lines.
- This will continue until everyone in the group has taken a turn, or the page is full.
- Open the page to read the poem that has been created.
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