Recommended for you

Start writing a post

Entertainment

The Best Quotes Of The Beat Generation

The life of a 20th century poet through the eyes of the Beat Generation.

Krissy Valluru

May 22, 2017

Alpharetta, Georgia

1475

oldnewyorklandia.tumblr.com

A love for poetry is a love for living through multiple lifetimes apart from your own. Some of my favorite poets are the minds who founded the Beat Generation, a movement formed by a group of college students at Columbia University in the 1950s who explored their emotions and reflected on their experiences of life as artists in New York City. The following are a few of my personal favorite quotes from their writings.

1. The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction, the weight, the weight we carry is love. — Allen Ginsberg

2. Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. — William S. Burroughs

3. If I had a soul I sold it for pretty words; If I had a body I used it up spurting my essence. — Allen Ginsberg

4. Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life. — Jack Kerouac

5. One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. — Jack Kerouac

6. The spirit of love survives to ennoble our lives if we have the wit and the courage and the faith — and the art! to persist. — William Carlos Williams

7. I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion. — Jack Kerouac

8. The circle is complete. I am living in Eternity. The ways of this world are the ways of Heaven. ― Allen Ginsberg

9. Maybe that’s what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars. — Jack Kerouac

10. Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does. — Allen Ginsberg

The beauty of poetry and emotive writing in general is that it doesn't have to pertain to only person or only one situation. It's meant to be ambiguous. It's meant to make you think of memories or emotions that are dear to you and help you make sense of them. Poetry is important to me not only because it is beautiful but also because it can highlight things that are not-so-beautiful. Essentially, that is the power of art: being unapologetic about showcasing who you truly are.

Report this Content

This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

Health and Wellness

5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity

It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

Grand Canyon University

141

5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity

Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash

The first two weeks of classes have come to an end and they have been anything BUT easy. It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

Although this seems like the best solution, it is also the easy way out. Take it from the girl who took basically a whole week off from her life because she just could not handle everything that was being thrown at her. This caused her to feel extremely lonely and even more stressed out for being behind in classes that JUST began.

Keep Reading...Show less

self-pity

Entertainment

11 Things We Learned From Brooke Davis

"What's more important? What we become or how we become it?"

St. Thomas Aquinas College

"She was fiercely independent, Brooke Davis. Brilliant, and beautiful, and brave. In two years she had grown more than anyone I had ever known. Brooke Davis is going to change the world someday, and I'm not sure she even knows it." - Lucas Scott, An Unkindness of Ravens

Brooke Davis of the hit show One Tree Hill was the it girl - she had it all, or so we thought. She started out as a stuck-up, shallow, spoiled, head cheerleader who didn't have her life together. She slept around a lot and loved to party - sounds like your typical high school teenager right? Wrong. B. Davis had so much more to offer. Caring, loyal, and outspoken, she has taught us some valuable lessons throughout the 9 seasons that OTH was on the air:

Keep Reading...Show less

brooke davis

Relationships

11 Signs You Have An Honorary Roommate

Make yourself at home, why don't you?

Appalachian State University

1853

Rachel Zadeits

For some of us, coming to college was the first time we ever had to share a room. It was a big change, but a fun one. As you meet more and more people over the course of your college career, it seems to be a pattern that you will at some point have that one friend that doesn't live with you, but acts like they do. We call those people, "Honorary Roommates" and here are 11 signs you have one in your life.