Abstract:
This document explores the influence of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land on Allen Ginsberg’s Howl via the use of fragmented structure and post-apocalyptic language. Both of these poets created zeitgeist poems that spoke to post-war societies. Eliot, Ginsberg, and their readers found meaning in speaking for the fractured nature of society. This is an exploration of Eliot’s influence on Ginsberg. Ginsberg followed similar traditions the modernists, such as their ability to show rather than to tell. This document includes the creative manuscript “The Weak Minds of My generation,” inspired by the styles of both T.S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg.
