Allen Ginsberg's Poem 'Kaddish'

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Allen Ginsberg's poem, 'Kaddish', was written as a tribute to his mother, who had gone through many severe psychotic episodes, after she had passed away. The author points out that Ginsberg, who missed the funeral of his mother, learned that the Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, had not been said because there had not been enough men present as required by Jewish law; subsequently, two years after his mother's death, Ginsberg performed the ceremony and started writing his 'Kaddish'. The paper explains that, in this poem, Ginsberg's style of writing is almost disjointed, yet not difficult to follow, as the poet goes through many different feelings as he remembers his mother in her illness.

From the Paper:

"Unfortunately, Naomi Ginsberg remained very unhappy and equally unstable throughout the teenage years of her son, and she often returned to Greystone, where she sometimes remained for more than a year at a time. Allen Ginsberg, his father Louis, and his brother Eugene managed to keep the house and the family together through all of the hard times that they faced, and they were very close to one another, which helped fight off some of the despair and the helplessness that they felt regarding their mother's condition. However, Allen had special feelings toward his mother, and he saw her condition and her insanity as being a spiritual problem instead of a mental condition."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ginsberg, Allen. (1984). Collected Poems 1947-1980. New York: Harper & Row.

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