Post World War 2 Writers. Explicit poems. Rejected American Values. Went Against the grain. And did many drugs.
The poets of this era wanted to be rebels, but they did stand for some things: Buddhism, hallucinations that bring you to a higher spiritual point in order to write poetry, and being themselves, for a few. They aslo wanted to seem as obscene as possible. This is because they wanted to oppose American values and run against the grain and be different. This almost put them in jail, because they were accused in court of writing something that was so explicit couldn't legally be published. It was a pretty rough, gritty, liberalized genre which started in San Francisco but actually got popular in New York City, with those who took it to heart. The style of this poetry is often free-verse, and very creative, and experimental with strucutre, words, and anything else you can put in a poem. Jack Kerouac decided to name it himself, being one of the beats genreation beginners, and did so to describe the rebellious nature of these poets. Lets look at a poem from him and learn from the pro.