Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Michael McClure’s "Ghost Tantra: 39" blends raw, bestial sound poetry with an elegy for Marilyn Monroe, creating a striking juxtaposition between Hollywood glamour and the primal energy of his tantras. Dated August 6, 1962—the day after Monroe’s death—the poem mourns her passing while simultaneously elevating her to a near-mythic status, celebrating her physicality, sensuality, and luminous presence. Within the Beat Movement’s countercultural rejection of mainstream American icons, McClure’s tribute stands out as both reverent and radical. Rather than depicting Monroe as a tragic figure destroyed by fame, he embraces her as a perfect mammal, an embodiment of vitality and beauty that transcends human limitation.

The poem begins with an invocation: "MARILYN MONROE, TODAY THOU HAST PASSED THE DARK BARRIER." The dark barrier suggests death, but McClure frames it not as an end but as a transition—Monroe dives into it, her movement fluid, effortless, almost celebratory. This moment transforms her into something larger than life, a figure of eternal radiance. The swirl of golden hair evokes both her iconic image and the idea of golden light, linking her to divine or celestial forces. In a world obsessed with her surface beauty, McClure recognizes a deeper, more archetypal power in her presence.

Rather than mourning in a conventional sense, McClure hopes Monroe has found "a sacred paradise for full warm bodies, full lips, full hips, and laughing eyes!" This paradise is not abstract or spiritual in the traditional sense but deeply rooted in the physical. McClure does not separate the soul from the body—he envisions an afterlife where Monroe’s sensuality is not diminished but celebrated. In this, he aligns with Beat ideals of rejecting Puritanical repression, embracing the body as a site of joy, warmth, and sacred energy. His Monroe is not a disembodied spirit but a continued force of beauty and pleasure, fully alive even in death.

The poem then shifts into McClure’s signature beast language: "AHH GHROOOR. ROOOHR. NOH THAT OHH! OOOH…" These guttural exclamations function as both lament and ecstatic utterance, bypassing rational language in favor of something more instinctual and primal. Where conventional eulogies seek order and meaning, McClure embraces raw sound, a direct, bodily response to loss that taps into something deeper than words. The effect is both mournful and transcendent, as though the poet is howling Monroe’s spirit into the universe, acknowledging her death not with detached sorrow but with visceral, unrestrained energy.

"Farewell perfect mammal / Fare thee well from thy silken couch and dark day!" Here, McClure explicitly names Monroe as a mammal, placing her within the realm of natural, biological life rather than the artificial, constructed image of her as a Hollywood starlet. The phrase perfect mammal is both reverent and radical—Monroe is not divine in a traditional sense but is exalted in her very physicality, her mammalian presence a form of sacred beauty. The silken couch evokes both the luxury of her Hollywood existence and the setting of her death, while dark day suggests not only her passing but the shadow cast by fame, exploitation, and loneliness.

The latter half of the poem dissolves almost entirely into sound poetry: "AHH GRHHROOOR ! AHH ROOOOH. GARR nah ooth eeze farewell." This sequence reads like a chant, an incantation designed not to explain or rationalize but to call out into the void, to give voice to something beyond linguistic meaning. McClure's Ghost Tantras were deeply rooted in the idea of poetry as biological utterance, a way of bypassing intellectual constraints and tapping into primal experience. These sounds function as both an expression of grief and a form of release, as though the poet is singing Monroe into another existence, beyond words and human limitation.

The poem closes with rhythmic, almost hypnotic repetitions: "Moor droon fahra rahoor / rahoor, rahoor. Thee ahh-oh oh thahrr noh grooh rahhr." These sounds suggest something ceremonial, a farewell chant that feels ancient despite its untranslatable nature. The final utterances—rahhr, rahhr—resemble an animal’s growl or roar, reinforcing the idea that true mourning, true recognition of Monroe’s significance, cannot be captured in conventional language. It must be felt, sounded, experienced at the level of breath and voice.

Structurally, "Ghost Tantra: 39" mirrors McClure’s wider poetic ethos: it refuses traditional form, moves fluidly between clear statements and raw utterances, and prioritizes physicality and spontaneity over polished, detached reflection. By mourning Monroe in this way, McClure refuses to sentimentalize her or reduce her to a tragic icon. Instead, he celebrates her bodily presence, her energy, her laughter, and her warmth. Unlike the media’s portrayal of Monroe as a lost soul destroyed by her own vulnerability, McClure offers a vision of her as a force of life—radiant, powerful, and worthy of an afterlife that does not deny but magnifies her sensuality.

Ultimately, "Ghost Tantra: 39" is both elegy and exorcism, both celebration and lament. McClure channels the primal howl of loss but refuses to let Monroe be reduced to silence. His poem does not just speak about her—it invokes her, keeping her spirit alive in sound, breath, and the raw, untamed energy of poetic utterance. In doing so, McClure turns her death not into an end but into an expansion—a movement beyond the Hollywood image, beyond language itself, into something wild, free, and immortal.

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