Beats Research

The beats poetry emerged in the late 50’s and early 60’s and evolved in New York City and California. San Francisco is where this group/movement became very prevalent. This poetry celebrated non-conformity, spontaneity, and creativity. At the end of WW2 many people were left questioning main stream society, politics, and culture after seeing where it had gotten us. It was somewhat of the pre-hippie crowd and ideas that were expressed in this group. Many poets from this group developed an interest in Buddhism. The problem with labeling poets, is that it generalizes and there are many poets that fit into many different groups. Three major influential poets from this group are Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. The topics that the beat poets wrote about were more controversial issues such as war, abortion, sex, homosexuality, and others.