To Aunt Rose

Allen Ginsberg’s (1926-1997) “To Aunt Rose” (1961) is a free verse Beat poem from his popular second publication Kaddish and Other Poems (1961). As a beat free verse poem, “To Aunt Rose” reads almost like a fragment of thoughts. Inspired by friend and fellow writer Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg relied on the stream of consciousness form of poetry and what he called spontaneous mind. Combined, these approaches to poetry led to a quick-firing, uncensored, psychological powerhouse of a poetic voice. “To Aunt Rose” is a prime example of Ginsberg’s psychological poetic power, as it shifts between two time periods and seemingly scattered thoughts to offer a heartfelt reflection about Ginsberg’s deceased Aunt Rose. And typical of Ginsberg, the poem blends the personal with the public as he synthesizes images and memories of his aunt, his own sexuality, and his family’s politics with a deeper, bleaker portrayal of America and what he viewed as its lost potential. The poem, coming during his most popular and influential writing period, is one of his more popular ones.

Poet Biography

Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926 to Louis Ginsberg and Naomi Levy in Newark, New Jersey. Ginsberg’s father was a teacher and a writer, and his mother was deeply involved in Leftist politics. Ginsberg’s mother also suffered from schizophrenia, and her mental health struggles had a profound influence on Ginsberg’s childhood and adult life. She would end up spending most of Ginsberg’s life in a mental institution, and her experiences there would later influence Ginsberg’s poetry and his own mental state.

Ginsberg’s poetic influences were his father; Lionel Trilling, the critic and writer (and Ginsberg’s college professor at Columbia University); and the famous American poet William Carlos Williams. From his father, Ginsberg gained an appreciation for poetry and his poetic forebears; he developed a special appreciation for Walt Whitman, who would become one of his muses. From Trilling, Ginsberg gained confidence in his own writing ability. And from Williams, Ginsberg found an appreciation for sound and rhythm in spoken poetry, as well as an understanding of how dialect influences verse.

While studying at Columbia, Ginsberg would meet two people who would change his life: Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady (among other influential people like William S. Burroughs). Ginsberg fell in love with Cassady, and the two had a complicated love affair, as Cassady preferred women while Ginsberg was gay.

After college, Ginsberg experienced a psychological epiphany while reading and masturbating in his apartment. He claimed William Blake, the famous Romantic poet, spoke to him in a dreamlike state, and from then on, Ginsberg dedicated his life to re-experiencing that inspirational moment. He would pursue this through drug use, meditation, spiritual reflection, sex, and various writing styles.

Along with Burroughs and Kerouac, Ginsberg unofficially launched what came to be known as the Beat Generation, an artistic and cultural response to the Eisenhower post-war generation in America. While Beat philosophy is difficult to pin down, it was essentially a rejection of the status quo of middle class life.

Ginsberg ultimately moved from the east coast to the west coast, spending significant time in San Francisco. In California, Ginsberg met Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who would become his publisher. He also met Peter Orlovsky, who would become his partner for the rest of his life.

Ginsberg’s most prominent artistic achievement is his 1956 Howl and Other Poems. The titular poem in that book became notorious for its depiction of homosexuality, insanity, drug use, and other taboo subjects in late 1950s America. The government initially banned the book, which only increased its popularity. Because of the book’s success, and Ginsberg and his friends’ rejection of social norms, the Beats became a cultural phenomenon that would eventually influence the hippies of the mid-to late 1960s. During the 1960s, Ginsberg was active in political and social movements, including the American Civil Rights movement and the anti-war movement.

Ginsberg would continue to write, teach, and perform for the next three decades, but he never again reached the popularity and notoriety he achieved in late 1950s and early 1960s; however, he remained influential in the artistic world, including with artists such as Bob Dylan and The Beatles, who took their name from the Beat Generation.

Ginsberg’s philosophy of life could be described as hippy, new age, existential, and post-modern. He was born Jewish but studied Buddhism and Hinduism extensively. He was unapologetic and very public about being homosexual, which was extraordinary for the time. He was also an advocate for drug use, including marijuana and LSD. Ginsberg was a Marxist as well, and all of these things greatly influenced his writing.

Ginsberg died from heart failure in 1997.

Poem Text

Ginsberg, Allen. “To Aunt Rose.” 1961. Poeticious.com.

Summary

Ginsberg starts the poem by identifying who he is writing to: his aunt Rose. He then describes her physical state, saying that she smiles despite her physical ailments, including an injury to her leg and rheumatism.

The description then morphs into a scene from Ginsberg’s childhood when he would sing songs at the piano for party guests while his aunt would collect money from the listeners. The party is for Spanish loyalists, people who supported the left wing faction during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). From this description, the reader understands that this poem is autobiographical and the scene is from early in Ginsberg’s life. Ginsberg describes the people in the room and mentions the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of English speakers who traveled to Spain to fight against the fascists.

Ginsberg then shifts to another memory with his aunt. This memory is a sexual one. He says his aunt experienced years of loneliness and sexual frustration, and then he describes a memory of himself standing naked on a toilet seat while his aunt put calamine, a lotion, on his thigh to treat poison ivy. Ginsberg describes his “first black curled hairs” (Line 25), referencing his pubic hair as he begins to hit puberty. He then wonders what his aunt was thinking as she looked at him naked, and then he plays with gender, calling himself “a man already— / and I an ignorant girl of family silence on the thin pedestal / of my legs in the bathroom” (Lines 27-29), hinting at his latent (at the time) homosexuality.

The scene then briefly shifts to the present as Ginsberg, seemingly talking to his dead aunt, reassures her that Hitler is dead. He says Hitler is with Tamburlaine, a historical military leader, and Emily Brontë, a writer.

The next stanza again shifts to the past as Ginsberg describes a memory of his aunt walking through her New Jersey apartment in a flower dress and congratulating Ginsberg’s father for Liveright, a publishing company, publishing one of his poems.

Then again, suddenly, Ginsberg returns to the present. He again says Hitler is dead, and he says Liveright is out of business. As a result, Ginsberg’s father’s publications, The Attic of the Past (1920) and “Everlasting Minute” (1931), are out of print. Ginsberg then runs through a list of names and describes how these people, whom his aunt and he once knew, have all changed for the worse, growing old and giving up the things they did in their youth.

The poem ends with a shift to aunt Rose’s deathbed. Ginsberg describes her as pale and dying, and he offers her a comforting thought, telling her the war in Spain ended long ago.