Analysis Of Allen Ginsberg 's ' Howl ' And '

The Carleton University Art Gallery’s current exhibition We Are Continually Exposed to the Flashbulb of Death: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996), is a linear timeline of the lives, romances, and works of the American Beat generation. The exhibition, curated by Barbara Fischer and John Shoesmith, is a survey of Allen Ginsberg’s photographs, which capture the freedom, artistic creations, and the open sexuality of this group. The organization of the exhibit, along with the added captions below each photograph, create a narrative of a past generation, both capturing and reflecting on an era.

The historic beat generation served as a bridge to the hippies in the early 1960’s. They were radical poets who opposed censorship. They were outspoken and placed a great deal of emphasis on drugs, alcohol, and sex. They were known for their eccentric writing styles. “Much of the poetry in the mid-‘50s was in a kind of neoformalist and academic mode that was very tame and highly intellectual and spoke to a small and elite audience” (Interview). However, the beat generation spoke to the rest of the population. They were elite, for they came from top notch universities, nonetheless, they wrote about the forbidden topics. No censorship, everything was placed out in the open for everyone to see. A prolific figurehead arose, Diane di Prima. She

In William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he declares that "the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom…Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained." These beliefs are reiterated and expanded upon in both Toni Morrison’s novel Sula and Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem Howl. Both authors challenge the conception of socially imposed boundaries, which suppress the absolute freedom of thought and action, by venerating the human characteristic of excess. Instead of abiding by the social norms of the general cultural animosity towards excess, Morrison and Ginsberg use this vilified "attribute" as a means to transcend the aforementioned

Where you were sick of the Tiffany-twisted minds, Mercedes bends, and the pretty pretty faces.

In Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” Thoreau says that "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” (Thoreau pg. 930) To Thoreau and many other Transcendentalists, being your own person or individualism was of utmost importance. Thoreau’s true meaning behind this statement is if someone acts differently than you or in a strange manner, they may have different values and norms in their life than your own. Those people are simply reacting in a way that their values deem as morally right. Thoreau greatly emphasizes the importance of being different and not conforming to normal societal ways. When in the book Walden he moves into the woods to see what life is like with little

In the 1950’s, a new literary movement recognized as the Beat Generation influentially changed the United States with an outburst of creativity and cultural innovation. Allen Ginsberg, one of the “founders” of the Beat Generation, made a significant impact in the history of American literature. Howl, one of his great works, caught the attention of the public and immensely broadened the style of poetic writing. From end to end, Ginsberg’s work changed the standard of modern American poetry by using various tones, forms, and figurative language.

Poetry has a special ability to drive in a main theme or point in the same way that a powerful image can. It does this through careful selection and use of the language, ensuring the words create an image in the minds of the reader that is even stronger than the words themselves. Like a powerful image, poetry can transfer a sense of meaning directly to the subconscious brain without the conscious mind realizing it. By paying special attention to how this is done within the poem, analyzing the words used and how they are put together, the meaning of the poem moves back into the conscious mind and can relate profound meaning regarding the human condition or the state of society. In his poem “HOWL”, Alan Ginsberg attempts to comment on the state of modern society and its effects on the “best minds” and “angel-headed hipsters” as the hipsters become crushed under a force collectively termed Moloch from which the only escape is madness.

In the midst of radical changes in America during the 1950s as a result of the Cold War, the Beat Generation came into existence. America in the 1950s was an age of conformity, something the Beats were against. Individuality was thrown out the window. The middle class emerged. In the suburbs, every house looked the same and everyone wanted to buy what their neighbor had and keep up with societal norms. Everyone acted the same way and shared the same beliefs as everyone else. Society in the 1950s, were “confined” to institutions in which Allen Ginsberg wrote about in the poem, Howl. In fact, he met some of his fellow beat poets at his university and a companion whom he dedicates this poem to at a psychiatric ward. His experiences at these institutions was of great influence to him as a person and as a poet.

Howl is a poem that was written in 1955 by Allen Ginsberg. It was published as a part of his poetry collection called Howl and Other Poems in 1956. “Howl” is considered to be one of the greatest works of American literature, and is also one of the best known pieces in Beat literature. The poem is dedicated to Carl Solomon who Ginsberg met in a Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey.

“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.” Allen Ginsberg believed this wholly and based his means of poetry by what he said in this sentence. One cannot censor thoughts, just as one can’t censor expression. Ginsberg faced controversy for sexual content and profanities that he used in his poetry, but those were merely his private thoughts that he brought to the public. His poetry fueled a whole generational revolution in the 1950s. In times of cookie cutter uniformity Allen Ginsberg went against norm and wrote explicit poetry for the sake of expressing a

The Beats were the radical outcasts of the 1950s, creating obscene, anti-war and thought provoking poetry. Not only did they not fit in with the norms of the time, they actively fought against them. The Beats were new and fascinating, though not to be openly awarded, they were to be condemned for their non-conformity. Even though they were portrayed as deviants, the interest and controversy surrounding them helped to boost their message and gain them fame and adoration. I did not have much of an opinion on the subculture of the Beats before this class, the only poem from this subculture that I had been exposed to beforehand was Howl by Ginsberg. Now I can fully appreciate Ginsberg’s work, by understanding the constraints of the time period, and the fight for the freedom of speech I have a high level of respect for the Beats.

Allen Ginsberg is a brand name of the Beat Generation. In Howl, Allen Ginsberg expresses his unconventional views of society throughout the poem. He references his hate for mainstream living and his love for the dark underground world of self expression and spiritual freedom. Ginsberg’s language and opinions are contentious for the 1950s. Howl is written to open the eyes of Americans, and to cry out against conformity and exploitation.

In and around the 1950s Allen Ginsberg, along with several other great poets interested in changing social consciousness and defying conventional writing, became known as the Beat generation. Beat poetry focuses on the battle against social conformity and literary tradition. These Beat poets, known for their unconventional lifestyle, unorthodox political views, rowdy behavior, and experimental drug use, caused a lot of controversy. In Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, Ginsberg employs a particularly confrontational and crude writing style to challenge the heteronormative, nuclear driven society that promotes the marginalisation and ostracisation of minorities and individuals whose ideology does not agree with that of the rest of the nation. Ginsberg believes that American society remains gravely repressed and his writing works to challenge that. Ginsberg, along with the other poets of the beat generation, introduce all the social taboos of the time such as heterosexual as well as homosexual sex, drugs, and addiction, into their writings. Ginsberg became one of the most influential poets in literary history, preaching his personal truths and promoting the idea of breaking the mold of the idealistic nuclear American society.

“An impeccable display of the glorious stream of consciousness that aims to demean the patriarchal aspects of society from the great Allen Ginsberg” is not what the critics of the 1950’s were saying when they first read Allen Ginsberg’s, “Howl.” The critics of the 1950’s originally described “Howl” as an “insult to intelligence,” demoting it to be nothing more than buddha babble that should be stripped of its poetic genre and labeled as mere nonsense to the reader. It seems unfair that the critics deemed the poem in such harsh lighting without acknowledging “Howl’s” more admirable characteristics. Indeed, the concept of Howl is hard to follow, but looking at Howl from the perspective of a stream of consciousness, it is interesting to see how the supposed “nonsense” connects together, as if Ginsberg is playing a game of Chain Reaction. While “Howl” was initially demoted as mere babble, the obvious stabs at the patriarchy, the sudden change in subject, the immense heat emerging from his poetry, and the freedom that comes from the insanity demonstrated in “Howl” renders the poem not only a work that stands against societal barriers, but a piece of art that is deserving of literary merit.

Howl, by Allen Ginsberg is an example of how a “turning loose of emotion” becomes not just an escape of emotion, but an expression for his critiques against the American Society in the 1950’s. Throughout the collection of poems, the minimal use of poetic conventions