Background
Ginsberg began writing the poem in the Beat Hotel in Paris in December 1957 and completed in New York in 1959. The poem was published as the lead poem in the collection Kaddish and Other Poems (1961). It is often considered one of Ginsberg's finest poems, with some scholars holding that it is his best poem.
The title Kaddish refers to the mourner's prayer or blessing in Judaism. This long poem was Ginsberg's attempt to mourn his mother, Naomi, but also reflects his sense of loss at his estrangement from his born religion. The traditional Kaddish contains no references to death, whereas Ginsberg's poem is riddled with thoughts and questionings of death.
Read more about this topic: Kaddish (poem)
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