"Wales Visitation", also styled as "Wales—A Visitation", is a poem by

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

written in July 1967 while Ginsberg was staying in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

with his British publisher

Tom Maschler Thomas Michael Maschler (16 August 193315 October 2020) was a British publisher and writer. From 1960, he was influential as the head of publishing company Jonathan Cape over a period of more than three decades. Maschler was noted for institutin ...

. The poem makes reference to Romantic literary traditions and utilises imagery of the Welsh landscape. It was published in

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

on May 11 1968 and also in Ginsberg's Planet News collection of the same year.

Background and inspiration

Ginsberg had been invited by R. D. Laing to speak at the

Dialectics of Liberation Congress The congress on the Dialectics of Liberation was an international congress organised in London between 15 and 30 July 1967. It was organised by R. D. Laing, David Cooper, the American educationalist Joe Berke, and Leon Redler. The scope of th ...

in London in July 1967. After the conference, Ginsberg travelled with Tom Maschler to Wales and, according to Ginsberg's biographer

Barry Miles Barry Miles (born 21 February 1943) is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeare ...

, they stopped at

Tintern Abbey Tintern Abbey ( ) is a ruined medieval abbey situated adjacent to the village of Tintern in Monmouthshire, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye, which at this location forms the border between Monmouthshire in Wales and Gloucestershire in England. ...

on July 29 to allow Ginsberg access to the same source of inspiration as

Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ...

. They stayed at Maschler's stone cottage called Carney in the Black Mountains near

Capel-y-ffin is a hamlet near the English-Welsh border, a couple of miles north of Llanthony in Powys, Wales. It lies within the Black Mountains and within the Brecon Beacons National Park. The nearest town is Hay-on-Wye, some to the northwest. History ...

. The pair took

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

and, in the fifth hour of the

acid trip A psychedelic experience (known colloquially as a trip) is a temporary altered state of consciousness induced by the consumption of a psychedelic substance (most commonly LSD, mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms, or DMT). For example, an acid ...

, Ginsberg wrote the poem.

Form and content

The poem is written in free verse and has nine stanzas. Ginsberg employs a cataloguing technique, commonly used in Walt Whitman's poetry (who Ginsberg was strongly influenced by), in which descriptions of many entities of the landscape are presented to provide the reader with a rich absorbing image of the natural environment. The most prevalent poetic device Ginsberg employs is

personification Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, National personification, countries, an ...

, which helps to unite the objects described in the poem by recognising the humanity in all entities, ultimately building upon the primary theme of the poem, oneness.

Cultural impact

Ginsberg was interviewed on May 7 1968 by

William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American conservative writer, public intellectual, political commentator and novelist. Born in New York City, Buckley spoke Spanish as his ...

on his television show Firing Line and he recited the poem in front of Buckley and the live audience.

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

composed a piece of music called Echorus in the winter of 1994–95 for the Compassion Through Music project. This was first performed in 1996 with Ginsberg reading his poem Sunflower Sutra over the music. In a later recording in 2001 with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Echorus was performed again but with Wales Visitation being recited instead.{{Cite web , last=The Allen Ginsberg Project , first= , date=2023-08-10 , title=Philip Glass/Allen Ginsberg - Echorus , url=https://allenginsberg.org/2023/08/philip-glass-allen-ginsberg-echorus/ , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250527130247/https://allenginsberg.org/2023/08/philip-glass-allen-ginsberg-echorus/ , archive-date=2025-05-27 , access-date=2025-05-27 , website=The Allen Ginsberg Project , language=en-US An exhibition was installed at the

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff (), formerly known as the National Museum of Wales, is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Wel ...

called "Wales Visitation: Poetry, Romanticism and Myth in Art" in 2014, in which the poem was used as a origin to explore other works that were inspired by or connected to the culture and landscape of Wales.

References

1967 poems Poetry by Allen Ginsberg