[Poetry reading at the University at Buffalo on November 19, 1970] / Allen Ginsberg.

Recorded at the University at Buffalo on November 19, 1970 by Allen De Loach on a 7 inch Scotch reel-to-reel tape. Reading acquired by the Poetry Collection from De Loach. This CD contains seventy-two minutes of the appearance. The remaining two hours are on discs from the Intrepid Collection, numbered INT182A.

Allen Ginsberg made this appearance at the University at Buffalo on November 19, 1970. In this appearance, Ginsberg sang from William Blake's Songs of innocence and of experience, with the accompaniment of a harmonium. Ginsberg commenced by discussing how he began setting Blake's poetry to music: "I started after the Chicago convention, as a sort of visionary relief from the visionary horror of that scene. Coming back from San Francisco after taking a look at Neal Cassady's ashes, one of the Blake songs kept running through my head, one not in Innocence and Experience, 'The grey monk,' and from that I began listening to the tones of each word in the Songs." Ginsberg spent several minutes introducing "The little black boy" by discussing Gnosticism as presented in the book The gnostic religion (1958) by Hans Jonas.

Allen Ginsberg.

The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries. Digital conversion was made possible through a 2009 National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

1970

Sound recording

INT183B

reading from William Blake's Songs of innocence and of experience:Introduction (Songs of innocence) --The shepherd --The ecchoing green --The lamb --The little black boy --The blossom --The chimney sweeper --The little boy lost --The little boy lost --The little boy found --Laughing song --A cradle song --The divine image --Holy Thursday --Night --Spring --Nurse's song --Nurses song --On anothers sorrow --Introduction (Songs of experience) --The little girl lost --The little girl found --The sick rose --Ah! Sun-flower --London.

Hear@Buffalo: The Poetry Collection’s Audio Archive

UB Only

lib-pc002-INT183B.mp3