The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971 (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) [Paperback]

Allen Ginsberg (Author)

Book Description

Series: City Lights Pocket Poets Series | Publication Date: January 1, 2001

National Book Award for Poetry, 1973

Beginning with "long poem of these States," The Fall of America continues Planet News chronicle tape-recorded scribed by hand or sung condensed, the flux of car bus airplane dream consciousness Person during Automated Electronic War years, newspaper headline radio brain auto poesy & silent desk musings, headline flashing on road through these states of consciousness. . . .

Editorial Reviews

Review

After Thoughts
Anti Vietnam-war Peace Mobilization
Auto Poesy: On The Lam From Bloomington
Autumn Gold: New England Fall
Bayonne Entering Nyc
Bayonne Turnpike To Tuscarora
Beginning Of A Poem Of These States
Bixby Canyon
Bixby Canyon Ocean Path Word Breeze
Car Crash
Chicago To Salt Lake By Air
Cleveland, The Flats
Continuation Of A Long Poem Of These States
Crossing Nation
Death On All Fronts
Done, Finished With The Biggest Cock
Easter Sunday
Ecologue
Elegy Che Guevara
Elegy For Neal Cassady
Falling Asleep In America
Flash Back
Friday The Thirteenth
G.s. Reading Poesy At Princeton
Going To Chicago
Graffiti 12th Cubicle Men's Room Syracuse Airport
Grant Park: August 28, 1968
Guru Om
'have You Seen This Movie?'
Hiway Poesy L.a. To Wichita
Hum Bom!
Imaginary Universes
In A Moonlit Hermit's Cabin
Independence Day
Kansas City To Saint Louis
Kiss Ass
Manhattan Thirties Flash
Memory Gardens
Milarepa Taste
Northwest Passage
On Neal's Ashes
An Open Window On Chicago
Over Denver Again
Over Laramie
Past Silver Durango Over Mexic Sierra Wrinkles
Pertussin
Please Master
A Prophecy
Rain-wet Asphalt Heat, Garbage Curbed Cans Overflowing
Reflections In Sleepy Eye
Returning North Of Vortex
Rising Over Night-blackened Detroit Streets
September On Jessore Road
Smoke Rolling Down Street
Sonora Desert-edge
Swirls Of Black Dust On Avenue D
These States, Into L.a.
To Poe: Over The Planet, Air Albany-baltimore
Violence
A Vow
War Profit Litany
Wings Lifted Over The Black Pit
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author

Allen Ginsberg is also the author of Howl and Other Poems, which was originally published by City Lights Books in the fall of 1956.

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872860639
• ISBN-13: 978-0872860636
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We have entered The Fall of America, May 26, 2000

By 

jean-michel gadoua (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971 (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) (Paperback)

Well, you probabably knew it already. This is the first Allen Ginsberg book I have ever read. Asymetric beauty, astonishing aesthetics and original symbolism and metaphors meet personnal reflexions of the fall of the modern and capitalist America. You can really feel the beat, the music of this poetry. Allen Ginsberg sings as he travels through country landscapes and encounters, through smokestacks and cities.The vision of a sensitive man, looking at what this country is falling into and what it shows to him. A deep emotional book testifiyng a falling empire through the mind of a literary genius. A must. You'll never feel the same.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ginsberg's soul on Paper, February 17, 2000

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971 (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) (Paperback)

Allen Ginsberg brings his magic of the english word to the pages of fall of america, with his assaults of verbatim consciousness.A must read for any stream of consciousness poet.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ginsberg's peakskill, April 30, 2004

By 

Nicholas Cannariato (Chicago, Il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971 (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) (Paperback)

Allen Ginsberg peaks with this volume of wonderful, meditative poetry. Although many would claim he hit his prime early, circa Howl, The Fall of America, though not as stylistically dynamic as Howl or Kaddish, is more meditative, maturely political, and tender. Many of the poems in this volume are diaphonous reflections on Ginsberg's American travels, presumably without Kerouac(don't get too excited, hipsters). His poetic stylings seem to be dream woven, with a touch of substance induced mania and distinctly Ginsbergian patriotism thrown in for good measure. The themes of his poems range widely from a picnic with Einstein at Princeton to a shadowy image of Richard Nixon peering eerily into the righteous protest of a diverse group of anti-Vietnam activists, Ginsberg, of course, included. Whereas Howl and Kaddish are more anthology worthy poems, in contrast to most of the poems in this volume, The Fall of America is a richly spirited glimpse of America from a modern Whitman, a true American, Allen Ginsberg. Aum. Aum. Aum. shanti shanti shanti...