Allen Ginsberg

Wild Orphan

Written in April 1952 in New York; published in Howl & Other Poems (1956). Contains a few minor changes in five lines compared to the published version.

This audio is delivered via Quicktime, a free multimedia player for Windows & Mac computers. Read more about Quicktime on wikipedia, or download Quicktime. Please be sure to have the latest version of Quicktime installed for listening.

If you see a request by your Windows operating system to block or unblock the playing of this audio file, be sure to unblock. Your system will not allow this recording to play otherwise. If you are still unable to play the recording, try the alternative audio player.

February 1956
Reed College

Download the file (7.7 MB).
(Right-click the link, and choose "Save Target As," or "Save Link As.")