SOURCE: Trigilio, Tony. “‘Sanity a Trick of Agreement’: Madness and Doubt in Ginsberg's Prophetic Poetry.” In “Strange Prophecies Anew”: Rereading Apocalypse in Blake, H. D., and Ginsberg, pp.125-27. Teaneck, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000.

In the following essay Trigilio explores the relationship between the prophetic language in the poems “Howl” and “Kaddish” and experiences of psychiatric institutionalization in the poet's personal and family history.

1. Introduction: “we Say Anything We Want to Say”

In 1943, the young Allen Ginsberg traveled by ferry from his home in Paterson, New Jersey, to Columbia University for his freshman entrance examination. On the way, he “[p]rayed on ferry to help mankind if admitted—vowed … inspired by Sacco Vanzetti, Norman Thomas, Debs, Altgeld, Sandburg, Poe” (Kaddish, 214). Ginsberg narrates this excursion in Kaddish, and the prayer/vow recalled and recorded there affirms his childhood desire to become an “honest revolutionary labor lawyer” (214). As...