Perseverance Through Madness In Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'

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

of which help him cope with his unhappiness. Howl is an example of an artistic outlet that Ginsberg

Howl is a song by the English band, Florence and the Machine. It has three major themes: Innocence, Greed, and the Loss of Innocence. The themes act as the “plot” of the song: the singer was once innocent, but lost it when because she was consumed by the greed of wanting her feelings to be returned by the guy she likes. She used traditional, almost literal, symbols of innocence like a child, young lovers, and a man that prayers every night to make the message of innocence really clear.

Allen Ginsberg in his work, “Howl” tries to present a social commentary and a revolution. Allen presents the struggle of the time when social pressures were quickly building up, and a revolution was necessary which would free people from all forms of oppression. Allen presents his experiences which is an encounter with his friend whom he met in a mental institution. Allen uses several literary techniques to present the insanities in life and how people continue to struggle with it in life which ends up in tragedies and cries.

Rant Within the poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg, the author delivers a brilliant example of remarkable word usage, and emotion. The poem illustrates how Ginsberg’s journey of exploration, hardship, and pain affected him for the rest of his life. At the time of its publishing, some of the language he used in the work was considered obscene and as a result, was banned in the U.S. His descriptions of places and happenings are both vague and intricate at the same time, compelling one’s imagination to participate in an attempt to relate to the words in some minor way. The language is harsh, but guides the readers to his locations and through his experiences. In the 1950s people dealt with poverty, war, civil rights, and drugs. Ginsberg’s poem is a

From the outset of Howl, Part I takes on a tone of delirium as the Beat Poets, sometimes referred to as the ‘best minds’ or simply ‘they’,

Intending to start a revolution, Allen Ginsberg uses figurative language in Howl to bring awareness of the social restrictions implemented by the universities and offers hope of a free society. Allen Ginsberg

In the poem Howl, Allen Ginsberg challenges the modernity of American culture, which enforces the “best minds” (1) to give up their freedom to conform to the desired sense of normality. Ginsberg states “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked/ dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix” (9). His expression of Moloch The angry fix is what all of these “best minds” look for after being stripped of their freedom to conform to the new American culture after World War II.

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.

The poem by Allen Ginsberg that shook conventional standards of poetry was published in 1956. Howl is a poem that follows inspiration from the Walt Whitman style of writing. Ginsberg himself is said to have been a fan of Whitman. The poem is long lined work that constitutes the raw emotion and anger towards a disrupted and abusive society. Howl is considered as a revolutionary event in American poetry.

Ginsberg constructs HOWL into a dialogue, articulating “who” are the victims of the institution’s destruction, “what” is destroying their imagination, and “where” society’s restraints can longer detain their souls. Allen Ginsberg wrote “HOWL” during the 1950s, a time period when society was undergoing

This poem is sometimes referred to as a violent “howl” of human anguish. It attacks the forces of conformity and mechanization that Ginsberg believed destroyed the best minds of his generation. This poem has no real structure or rational connection of ideas, and the rules of grammar are abandoned in order to pack imagery into one line. The poem points the way toward a new and better existence, chronicling the pilgrimage of the “mad generation” toward a reality that is timeless and placeless, holy and eternal.

Allen Ginsberg, one of the most innovative poets of the age, characterized his poetry as the “desire to be [...] in a time of apathy” (Tytell, 313). Howl, Ginsberg’s most esteemed piece of work, surprised the majority of readers due to its vulgarity and explicit content. The urban settings across the United States greatly influence beatniks in writing about the environment of post World War II. This new mindset of free spirit allowed Ginsberg to explore new, but vulnerable subjects that may cause one to cringe. The literary experience present in Howl “allow[ed] an individual to discover his own vulnerability, his humanness, without cowering” (Tytell, 313). This was an important theme that encourage artistic development in the midst of conformity and bleakness. In the first line of his poem, he mentions how he saw “ the best minds of [his] generation destroyed by [the] madness” (ln 1) of materialism and pressure of technological advancement. The free spirited lifestyle that hipsters promoted distracted many authors and writers into getting hooked on drugs, sex and alcohol, which are main topics Ginsberg discusses throughout the poem. Through his writings, Ginsberg strives to “exorcise the shame, guilt and far that he [saw] as barriers to self-realization and total being” (Tytell 312), placing great emphasis on individuality. Poets like Ginsberg were responsible for the revival of creative potency in an age of silence. For example, Howls presents a range of tones ranging from severe anguish to uncontainable excitement. This literary aspect of his poems provided a way for readers “to retain the ability to feel in numbing times [...] in the face of materialistic culture” (Tytell 313). The bizarre breed of hipsters and the Beatnik writers who found literary ways of bringing their dull societies back to life were ready to cure, what Ginsberg saw

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

Walt Whitman is regarded as one of the most influential poets in American history while Allen Ginsberg was and still is considered a leading figure of the Beat Generation. Both of these poets have similar poetic tendencies even though they were almost a century apart from each other. Walt Whitman helped to inspire many literary descendants ranging from writers to poets alike. One of his most famous poems is in his book, “Leaves of Grass”, called “Song of Myself”. Allen Ginsberg can be considered one of Walt Whitman’s literary descendants due to the numerous similarities between “Song of Myself” and Ginsberg’s “Howl”, which is about the real experiences of Americans after World War II.