After spending years trying to turn publishing companies on to the work of his friends, neglecting his own poetry, Ginsberg gained fame in 1955 when he delivered a public reading of his poem Howl at Six Gallery in San Francisco. Following the release of Howl were the releases of other important poems, and Ginsberg began to spend time travelling the world. It was in these travels that he found Buddhism and met and fell in love with Peter Orlovsky.

Early in the 1960's, Ginsberg was quick to join the hippie movement. From the beginning, he helped Timothy Leary to publicize the discovery of LSD and was a regular speaker at Vietnam War protests. Continuing to publish poetry, he became a signature

Wales Visitation, another poem of Ginsberg's, was written in the summer of August 1967, partially while under the influence of LSD. Again, Ginsberg makes a point of depicting a lovely landscape, this time with a more positive outlook. Additionally, he speaks of advancement and technology, phrased in a negative light as he describes a 'thorned tower'.

As a final note on Wales Visitation, as previously stated, Ginsberg, while writing this poem, was deep in an LSD induced trip. This means that anything he saw or stated could merely be a hallucination, or that the writing could mean almost nothing to anyone whom was not in the same state of mind as he.

Ginsberg, throughout Iron Horse, focuses on a beautiful description of the landscape through his biased eyes. Clouded by his feelings about the war, it is clear that, while the country is described, in numerous ways, as being beautiful, a much darker connotation is being conveyed. References to the presence of car exhaust and fumes, in addition to comments on factory pollution, are repeated throughout descriptions of cities. General feelings of both isolation and loneliness are captured as the narrator sits upon a bus, longing to be able to be one with nature.

Unfortunately though, Atlas doesn't seem to take Ginsberg's poetry seriously. When speaking about specific poems, in addition to Ginsberg's lifestyle, Atlas often seems to take a mocking tone. While writing about Ginsberg's more abstract poems, such as Put Down Your Cigarette Rag (Don't Smoke), and specifically in reference to the poem Hum Bom!, Atlas states that, "You know the poet's had a few tokes..." On a final note regarding Atlas's credibility, when referring to the way in which Ginsberg tags his poems (date, time, chemical he was under the influence of at the time), he calls Marijuana (a depressent) a stimulant; though this is a tiny error, after reading it I have very little faith in his knowledge of drugs. In accordance with this statement, I do not accept him as capable of criticizing the work of Ginsberg as there are numerous other things about the poet's state of mind that he is most likely incapable of comprehending.

Though Atlas seems to appreciate Ginsberg, he doesn't seem to take seriously his poetry enough to enjoy poems such as Iron Horse. Additionally, he made mention of Iron Horse after speaking of Ginsberg writing of 'post-war America'; this strikes me as odd based on the fact that this poem was about situations in America during the Vietnam war. On his overall statements on Ginsberg, though, Atlas is right on target as the poet touches on nearly every genre which was discussed within the article.

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Approximate Word count = 1833
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)