SOURCE: Portugés, Paul. “Allen Ginsberg's Visions and the Growth of His Poetics of Prophecy.” In Poetic Prophecy in Western Literature, edited by Jan Wojcik and Raymond-Jean Frontain, pp. 157-73. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984.

In the following essay, Portugés details Ginsberg's visionary experiences and their effect on his poetry.

In the bitter winter of 1944, Allen Ginsberg was crossing by ferry to Manhattan in order to take a scholarship and entrance examination for Columbia University. He was, quite naturally, somewhat frightened and excited. Although almost eighteen years old, he still nurtured a secret desire kindled early in his childhood to help save the poor, the abused masses, God's true children. Shivering in the icy wind of the bright, damp morning, he vowed before his Maker to devote his life to helping the “masses in their misery”—if he could only pass his examination: “I went to take...