SOURCE: Diggory, Terence. “Allen Ginsberg's Urban Pastoral.” College Literature 27, no. 1 (winter 2000): 103-18.

In the following essay, Diggory views Ginsberg's poetry as part of the pastoral tradition.

Exhibits

What does Allen Ginsberg want? The question persists in his poetry, where it has acquired something more of a literary emphasis now that the poet himself is dead. Without insisting too rigidly on the boundary between art and life that Ginsberg delighted in crossing, I want to propose the literary concept of “pastoral” as a useful means for exploring the question of Ginsberg's desire. Taken together, the following three exhibits will suggest what I mean by “pastoral” in this connection and how complex a tradition conveys the concept to Ginsberg.

Exhibit 1: In 1977, the poet Kenneth Koch asks Ginsberg, “What would you consider an ideal existence for yourself as a poet?” Ginsberg replies: “Retiring from the world, living in a mountain hut...