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28th out of 134 books
—
69 voters
The Happy Birthday of Death
It is true that he has been one of the inner circle of the 'Beats' from
the first, but many admirers of his poetry feel that it belongs quite as
much to other and older traditions in world literature.
the first, but many admirers of his poetry feel that it belongs quite as
much to other and older traditions in world literature.
Paperback, 91 pages
Published
January 17th 1960
by New Directions
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Apr 02, 2008
Andy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
beat poetry
Shelves:
poetry-corner,
jazznbeats
Gregory Corso makes my brain burn. He's a wonderful poet who creates passages you can't get out of your head. Here's a sample...
Yes! One momentflash BANG!-and boiling boywar ("Police")
The dead are born in Cheeryland, their buttocks neigh ("Heave The Hive With New Bees")
"She Doesn't Know He Thinks He's God" (poem title)
My beautiful hair is dead, now I'm the rawhead ("Hair")
My sea-ghost rise, and slower hair, silverstreaks my eyes, up up I whirl ("Seaspin")
Images of clowns crying into fistfuls of...more
Yes! One momentflash BANG!-and boiling boywar ("Police")
The dead are born in Cheeryland, their buttocks neigh ("Heave The Hive With New Bees")
"She Doesn't Know He Thinks He's God" (poem title)
My beautiful hair is dead, now I'm the rawhead ("Hair")
My sea-ghost rise, and slower hair, silverstreaks my eyes, up up I whirl ("Seaspin")
Images of clowns crying into fistfuls of...more
It was strange, I still don't know exactly what to think of it except that I enjoyed it greatly. At first it seemed almost like pure chaos. The words barely held in relation to the other. Sometimes they appeared as if chosen at random. Perhaps they were. In every poem there was a meaning that defied reason, even by the standards of poetry, but something was there that held it together. An amorphous purpose that can only be communicated in the funky style that Corso writes in.
The guy has a sense...more
The guy has a sense...more
Absolutely stunning collection of poetry. Plenty of goodies in here folks.
Corso's growth curve as a poet from The Vestal Lady on Brattle to Gasoline to The Happy Birthday of Death is not linear but explosively exponential.
The breadth and depth of vocabulary and ideas in The Happy Birthday of Death is amazing. Some of Gregory's imagery is rather osbscure at times (like 'werewolve bathtubs') but somehow this does not detract from the enjoyment of reading these poems. If anything, Corso's unusual...more
Corso's growth curve as a poet from The Vestal Lady on Brattle to Gasoline to The Happy Birthday of Death is not linear but explosively exponential.
The breadth and depth of vocabulary and ideas in The Happy Birthday of Death is amazing. Some of Gregory's imagery is rather osbscure at times (like 'werewolve bathtubs') but somehow this does not detract from the enjoyment of reading these poems. If anything, Corso's unusual...more
The absolute exuberance in many of these poems is (perhaps due to the time it was written) still totally earnest and (to me?) completely unironic... the tone of these is built around the preeminent puncuated display of exuberance and excitement -- the exclamation mark.
from "Hair"
"Come back, hair, come back!
I want to grow sideburns!
I want to wash you, comb you, sun you, love you!
As I ran from you wild before --
I thought surely this nineteen hundred and fifty nine of now
that I need no longer bite...more
from "Hair"
"Come back, hair, come back!
I want to grow sideburns!
I want to wash you, comb you, sun you, love you!
As I ran from you wild before --
I thought surely this nineteen hundred and fifty nine of now
that I need no longer bite...more
Probably my favourite Beat. 'She Doesn't Know He Thinks He's God' is an incredible little bullet of panic. Great to get 'Bomb' in here too.
My favorite book when I was a little girl. Corso was a genius.
I got nothing from this. Nothing but absolute rubbish.
2 thumnbs up
So great.
Corso reached his best poetic state in "The Happy Birthday of Death". It's got "Bomb", "Marriage" and others. My personal favorite is "Clown".
"the faint glow in the belly of enlightenment, is the old spouting their know" Read it and THINK
Merged review:
How to love the bomb an stop worrying
Merged review:
How to love the bomb an stop worrying
the best poem in this otherwise forgettable collection is "Marriage" which has Ginsberg's "America" kinda humor goin' on
See my essay on Gregory Corso in Octopus: [http://www.octopusmagazine.com/issue0...]
Bring me penguin dust! I need penguin dust! (Flash Gordon soap?)
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Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs).
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