Ginsberg s poetry also showed strong support of strength in the individual. He was not afraid to proclaim what he thought about himself, no matter how great or little. This is best captured in his collection of poems from 1974-1977 entitled Ego Confessions. Ginsberg proclaimed faith and pride in himself. He truly believed that he had found and fulfilled his goal in life I realized entire Universe was manifestation of One Mind /My teacher was William Blake my life work Poesy, / transmitting that spontaneous awareness to Mankind (595).
One of Emerson s most famous aphorisms is Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. This is best expressed through Ginsberg s poem America where he outwardly proclaims It occurs to me that I am America (47). This poem gave Ginsberg the opportunity to exercise his humor and good-natured views of himself in a mock ironic address to the American people.
The strongest transcendental characteristic shown in Ginsberg s writing are the utopian ideas that reoccur in his poems. The Beats are credited with replacing the outward struggle for utopia by the inward struggle for Nirvana or satori (Unger 373). However, Ginsberg repeatedly hinted at the ideas of a perfect society. The end of Howl places he and Carl Solomon in an America of hope transcending from Moloch and madness and giving off utopian possibilities of love and the true mental regularity (Lewis 1228).
The poem Television Was a baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber points out how television had corrupted the nation and gave a bleak disgusting perspective on the countries future. The poem then implies communist like ideas on how to salvage society from the venomous grips of the media. Ginsberg revealed what he thought was a revolutionary movement toward a utopian society (Lewis 1231).
Undoubtedly the presence of transcendentalism is apparent in Ginsberg s poetry; however, transcendental ideas were categorized as optimistic and inspiring, Ginsberg reverses this and uses transcendentalism as a dark, sometimes pessimistic way to express his thoughts and opinions. Yet, he was still a transcendentalist and his writing reflects the same characteristics as the great writers of the turn of the century.
Ginsberg was a true writer of the heart. He claims that he wrote only for himself, but he brought inconceivable inspiration and dedication to his time. He was a groundbreaking poet who spoke to the masses, and he did so in the tradition of his ancestors. If anyone lived life deep and sucked out the marrow of it it was Ginsberg (Thoreau 68). He is hailed Poet Laureate of the Beats and responsible for loosening the breath of American poetry
(George-Warren, 225). Few writers in the history of literature so persistently celebrated their ancestors and influences as Ginsberg did, and the result is the reshaping of modern poetry as we see it today.
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