SOURCE: Woods, Gregory. “Allen Ginsberg.” In Articulate Flesh: Male Homoeroticism and Modern Poetry, pp. 195-211. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Woods places Ginsberg's poetry within the gay tradition and considers the function of sexuality in his work.

Indiscretion

The argument that one's homosexuality is entirely her or his own affair, a private matter to be lapped in secrecy, cannot honestly be upheld. Sexual orientation has as much to do with social life and politics—if only because a homosexual person is well advised to choose approving friends, and not to vote for disapproving parties—as with internal emotion and the gymnastics of the boudoir. Supposedly private emotions, particularly those of writers, yearn for the freedom of release. So, a literature of homosexuality will seek to be affirmative (or confessional, at least), within the bounds of expediency. Clearly, where homosexual desires and acts are punishable...