The Vestal Lady On Brattle

by Gregory Corso

In the mid-1950s a new literary movement emerged from a New York-based group of writers who migrated to the West Coast and became the voice of a Post-War generation -- the Beats. Founded by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs the group expanded to include a fresh-faced delinquent just out of prison, Gregory Corso. Corso was a creature of the streets and his poetry, although reflecting refined sensibilities, often harkened back to his old Italian neighborhood and the petty mischief that landed him in penal institutions. As many of the Beats left for San Francisco, Corso chose a different path and moved to the area around Harvard University, where he acquired knowledge by stealth, pretending to be a Harvard classman. As writer Ed Ward describes in the Afterword to this volume of Corso's poetry, Corso was ratted out by some of the students who apparently resented that he was enjoying the campus life for free. However, once it was discovered how talented the young poet was he was allowed to stay, and other more appreciative students bankrolled The Vestal Lady on Brattle, Corso's first book, published privately and later picked up by City Lights Books, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's renowned imprint for the Beat writers.

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers.

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Vestal Lady On Brattle was Corso’s first published poetry volume. Taken as a whole, it’s not a strong effort, but it shows glimpses of the brilliance he would soon grow into.

There were a couple truly compelling poems here. Greenwich Village Suicide is as haunting as it is abrupt:

Arms outstretched
hands flat against the windowsides
She looks down
Thinks of Bartok, Van Gogh
And New Yorker cartoons
She falls

They take her away with a Daily News on her face
And a storekeeper throws hot water on the sidewalk

And Thoughts On A Japanese Movie is pure lyric beauty in a small package:

Let us love a thing together once
A thing vermilion

The plain is wide and many colors
Lie beneath the chestnut tree

Let us go there
You shall be my bride

I want to run vermilion through your hair

Requiem for “Bird” Parker, Musician is a poem set to jazz rhythms which showed promise of things to come. Corso also begin to develop his knack for imagery in this early volume:

You, whose mother’s lover was grass in the greenest season,
shall be born bastard in his warm green hands
and he shall be ephemeral
and shall not have enough time to teach you sun
and rain and wind,
yet you shall rock rock in his warm green hands
until the jealous season murders him.

Had the balance of the poems surrounding these been good, The Vestal Lady of Brattle would have been an outstanding first effort. They were not. Most of the balance is forgettable. But for the few that stand out, and those glimpses of the talent to come, this volume is necessary for any Corso fan.

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this first book of poetry by the great beat poet Gregory Corso, we see some wonderful work from an artist who is just getting started. My personal favourites are 'Coney Island' (even though Corso himself was not a huge fan of this poem!), 'King Crow' (which has a wonderful internal meter to it and which features the crow onomatopoeia of 'skeeack!' which crops up in some of Kerouac's work too - a thought: who is copying who here?) and 'In the Early Morning' (which contains very intense, vivid imagery).
I managed to pick up a copy of the original edition (quite rare and hard to find) but for even better value, I recommend the version of Gasoline which also features The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems, published by City Lights Bookstore. Highly recommended for fans of beat literature.

[gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

the most playful of his works— refreshing after gasoline. love to see his favorite motifs (pretty things, birds, destinations,) weave in and out of one another.

titular poem is still the best

[Leigh Sassone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Corso continues to develop as my favorite Beat poet! These poems transcend the mind and traditional conventions of English. Read and re-read a young poet at his best