Gingsberg Believes America's Youth Must Live up to Expectations

HOWL Analysis “Howl” is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg. At first glance, the poem appears to be a disorganized mess of words, moving from one sentence to the other almost like an enormous run-on sentence. Listening to Ginsberg read, he has an almost monotone voice, jumping from sentence to sentence in a way that mesmerizes the listener. This tone along with his choice of words sets the mood of the poem.

Allen Ginsberg’s revolutionary poem, Howl, is a powerful portrayal of life degraded. It represents the harsh life of the beat generation and chronicles the struggles of the repressed. Howl is a poem of destruction. Destruction of mind, body, and soul through the oppression of the individual. Using powerful diction, Allen Ginsberg describes this abolition of life and its implications through our human understanding of abstractions like Time, Eternity, and self. The poem’s jumbled phrasing and drastic emotion seems to correspond with the minds of the people it describes. Ginsberg uses surprisingly precise and purposeful writing to weave the complex

Walt Whitman was an American poet regarded as one of the most significant poets of nineteenth century America. In his most revered work of literature, “Song of Myself”, is regarded as an inspiration for many other poets who would one day follow in his profession, even as far as a century later. One such poet who was inspired by Whitman was Allen Ginsberg, who seemingly wrote the poem “Howl” as a response to “Song of Myself”. There are many similarities between the two poems, but the most significant are their overall themes, their distinct styles of writing, and how they describe their views on America during their respective time periods. The themes and language used in “Howl” is very similar to “Song of Myself”.

It was a 1951 TIME cover story, which dubbed the Beats a ‘Silent Generation, ’ that led to Allen Ginsberg’s retort in his poem ‘America,’ in which he vocalises a frustration at this loss of self- importance. The fifties Beat Generation, notably through Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl as will here be discussed, fought to revitalise individuality and revolutionise their censored society which seemed to produce everything for the masses at the expense of the individual’s creative and intellectual potential. Indeed, as John Clellon Holmes once noted: “TIME magazine called them the Silent Generation, but this may have been because TIME was not

Howl for the Subjection of our Individuality: Allen Ginsberg Reveals Corruption of Institutions Within America Allen Ginsberg: a poetic genius or lunatic? When reading Howl for the first hundred pages, Ginsberg’s sanity does not seem very apparent. Though, after time and deep interpretation, it shows raw truth, Ginsberg bares his soul within his poem, Howl. We are born, a soul into a body, genuinely each one-of-a-kind. Though, it seems America and its powerful institutions, tend to rip away layer by layer of individuality until there is nothing left.

A Howl Against Capitalism: An Analysis of a Poet’s Political Metaphors Ginsberg’s Howl is decidedly not the kind of poem that inspires children in traditional elementary schools across the country to put their right hands on their breasts, face the flag, sing the national anthem. Contrariwise, the controversial poem uses Ginsberg’s signature repetitive prosody and metaphorical speech to figuratively pummel the living daylights out of the society we know as America. More specifically, it is Ginsberg’s unabridged, unyielding critique of American lifestyle in the post-World War II era of the 1950’s from the perspective of the optimistically poetic but down-trodden beatniks. His fast-paced, restless thrashing is perhaps a defining feature of

The form of Ginsberg’s poem challenges the American culture by resistance from “best minds”. Howl is separated to three sections that include long lines, which look like paragraphs. Resisting

Century apart, Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman share similar cultural, political and moral values, which they express in their literary work. Whitman’s writing is considered controversial for the eighteen hundreds. He sets the stage for generations to come breaking way from the strict Victorian poetic tradition by writing in free verse. Ginsberg follows his footsteps when composing his poem “Howl” by writing in long lines almost resembling prose and subdividing the poem into several parts. Likewise, he uses numerous repetitions to achieve rhythmicity of his verse. Ginsberg’s poem is heavily influenced by Whitman’s philosophy. The works “Song of myself” and “Howl” are similar in ideas, structure and underling themes. The two authors protest against old traditions imposed on the individual by corrupt society, stand against conformity and put emphasis on the need for change. They identify with their generation and dwell on themes such as sexuality, religion and the state of American society.

Allen Ginsberg’s poem, Howl, deals with a group of people he considers geniuses that became insane, how they ended up insane, and a message to his close friend, Carl Solomon. The poem presents these ideas in three separate sections starting with the group of geniuses. In this section. Ginsberg tells us who these geniuses are and we discover that they are not doctors or lawyers, but drug users, prayers, the poor, and even artists. Section two tells us what drove these people insane and that is Moloch, a sacrificial god. Finally, the last section tells us about Ginsberg’s close friend, Carl Solomon, and their time together in a psychiatric hospital. Allen Ginsberg blames Moloch for driving these geniuses insane, but never clearly states what

Allen Ginsberg sees the increase in U.S involvement in the Cold War and the rise of the Red Scare as flaws in the government. Although America is doing so many bad things, the country still has the potential for so much more. In these poems, Ginsberg is able capture the times in which he lived in. These poems are also able to show how he was a pioneer of the Beat generation and would precede the coming backlash of the 1960s.

Ginsberg’s work often represents a struggle for spiritual survival in a dehumanized, repressive society. This can be seen in his writing of “Howl”:

Poet Allen Ginsberg composed "Howl" in 1955 and it was published by City Lights Books of San Francisco, CA the following year. He composed the poem in the middle of the 1950s, one of the greatest decades in history for mainstream America. It had been a decade since the American and Allied victory in the second world war. Numerous American men returned home to a country in much better shape than expected, with many women having entered the workforce to keep the economy and industry alive in their absence. The spoils of war were great and America saw a great era of prosperity and domestic, suburban bliss. More interstate highways were constructed. Many more cars were produced and bought. It was a classic era for mainstream American culture in the 1950s. Yet in the haze of the suburbs, expansion of television, growth of Hollywood, and cars, present here were the seeds of rebellion and counterculture that was more indicative of the following decade, 1960s. One such seed is the poem

Religious Barriers In Allen Ginsberg’s poem, HOWL, he shows his true feelings throughout the poem. With an obvious love and hate relationship to the idea the “institutions” of the world we live in. But what led to his expression of the institutions? Hatred, aggression, compassion, and empathy are all notable themes displayed throughout the poem as well.

There are many similarities between Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Ginsberg’s “Howl”. Whitman’s influence can be noticed in Ginsberg’s work which range from a similar style of format, structure, a concern with the general population of America, and the impact that these two great writers had on the rest of the literary world. Another significant influence that Whitman has for Ginsberg is the fact that Whitman had been considered an outcast from the literary world of his era. Whitman appeared as a plainly dressed working man rather than a fancy high societal poet. His long winded style, free verse, and sexual exposure made Whitman stand out from the rest of the other poets. Ginsberg was also not accepted among the poets of his generation. His literary works were banned from the public’s eye. Another similarity was between the two was their subject matter. In the introduction of leaves of grass, Malcolm Cowley said, “Its subject is a state of illumination induced by two (or three) separate moments of ecstasy”.

The Webster’s dictionary defines a howl as a loud cry of pain, anger or amusement(Webster). When you want to be heard, you use a strong voice that will get you noticed. That is what Allen Ginsberg did. Allen Ginsberg is a poet from the 50’s. He was born in 1926 and was raised in New Jersey(Charters). He was about 30 years old when he wrote his poem entitled Howl. In his poem he uses very explicit and vulgar language, which later caused the book to be banned. Throughout the poem there are different themes like intellectual institutions, madness, religion, depression, sex, drugs, government, sexuality and many more that no one was talking or writing about during this time. The poem focuses around the life of Ginsberg and his