Written on the slopes of Black Mountains in Wales, “Wales Visitation” readily captures the vastness and grandness of nature through enhanced lenses. Allen Ginsberg wrote the first draft of the poem under the influence of LSD, which contributes greatly to the unique imagery that persists throughout the entire poem. Ginsberg hones in on the details of the environment around him—rather than the minutiae of his psychedelic experience—with heightened senses and extreme focus. By concentrating on the earthly scenery surrounding him, he successfully allows sober readers to genuinely appreciate nature through an intensified image of his experience. One of the ways in which Ginsberg presents his LSD trip is his extensive use of colors throughout
…show more content…
Color is used at the beginning to describe the object’s static body, but the movement of the object is used to bring it to life, such as the “the clouds arise/as on a wave, gigantic eddy lifting mist” (ll. 3-4). In every stanza, the earth is always moving, whether it be the “One Being on the mountainside stirring gently” or the “shivering flowers on the mountain’s head—,” the earth is never still (ll. 42,48). The movements that Ginsberg observes are so synchronized that he describes how the “valleys breathe, heaven and earth move together” (l. 50). Though sober minds may observe the gentle shifting of tree leaves or a small gust of wind, only a high mind can genuinely experience earth’s full capacity, where “its softest breath/moves every floweret in the stillness on the valley floor,/trembles lamb-hair hung gossamer rain-beaded in the grass,/lifts tress on their roots” (ll. 71-74). Ginsberg encapsulates the tremor that vibrates earth indefinitely in this poem for sober readers to experience earth’s breath vicariously. “Wales Visitation,” written just six hours after Allen Ginsberg had taken LSD, describes the trembling earth with heightened sensory details. Through his extensive use of colors and movements to describe the earth, Ginsberg revives the once neglected and dull facets of nature with invigoration. The poem paints an image of the Black Mountains, but it is of one seen through the eyes of Ginsberg on psychedelics. With this poem, the sober readers are not only able to enjoy the vibrant version of the earth, but also to inherently appreciate what the earth’s natural
Color is used at the beginning to describe the object’s static body, but the movement of the object is used to bring it to life, such as the “the clouds arise/as on a wave, gigantic eddy lifting mist” (ll. 3-4). In every stanza, the earth is always moving, whether it be the “One Being on the mountainside stirring gently” or the “shivering flowers on the mountain’s head—,” the earth is never still (ll. 42,48). The movements that Ginsberg observes are so synchronized that he describes how the “valleys breathe, heaven and earth move together” (l. 50). Though sober minds may observe the gentle shifting of tree leaves or a small gust of wind, only a high mind can genuinely experience earth’s full capacity, where “its softest breath/moves every floweret in the stillness on the valley floor,/trembles lamb-hair hung gossamer rain-beaded in the grass,/lifts tress on their roots” (ll. 71-74). Ginsberg encapsulates the tremor that vibrates earth indefinitely in this poem for sober readers to experience earth’s breath vicariously. “Wales Visitation,” written just six hours after Allen Ginsberg had taken LSD, describes the trembling earth with heightened sensory details. Through his extensive use of colors and movements to describe the earth, Ginsberg revives the once neglected and dull facets of nature with invigoration. The poem paints an image of the Black Mountains, but it is of one seen through the eyes of Ginsberg on psychedelics. With this poem, the sober readers are not only able to enjoy the vibrant version of the earth, but also to inherently appreciate what the earth’s natural