Summary Of Let Us Howl By Allen Ginsberg

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

When Allen Ginsberg, the famous Beat poet, attacked the American mental health care system of the 1950's in his poem, "Howl", he knew the subject well. These experiences,

Ginsberg’s use of anaphora forces us to question the historical origins of both social afflictions and collective resistance in Howl, this blurring of the poet’s central objects of identification implies that his lamentation for the madness of his own generation is also a lamentation for the blighted hopes and wasted intellects of their precursors (384).

He uses words like “madness” , “hysterical”, and “hallucinating” to reinforce the theme. Ginsberg has personally experienced insanity in his life, his mom had struggled with it his whole life, and had been institutionalized several times. Ginsberg himself had pleaded insanity after he was convicted for theft and had spent time in a mental asylum. During his time in the mental in the mental asylum he met Carl Solomon, whom this poem is dedicated to. Carl Solomon was also a poet and he was struggling from severe Schizophrenia. Ginsberg is surrounded with insanity, so much so that he starts to see it everywhere in the world around him, and he reflects it in his works. In the poem Ginsberg describes the best minds of his generation as being “ mad” , he goes on to write about how they are struggling with drugs and with the inability to conform to society's norms.

Whitman’s speaker speaks in the voice of first person. Comparing Ginsberg with Whitman, he is possessed by Whitman who uses the personal pronoun ‘I’ more often, culminating in the hug between the body and soul, town and country, sexuality and spirituality, and science and mysticism – all-pervasive but Whitman’s ‘I’ is not completely identified in the absence of ‘you,’ who is not real; it is the imaginative audience of Whitman, which differentiates the poetry of Whitman, as he says, “You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,’ you shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself,” (Whitman 26). The self of Whitman is all-encompassing; it absorbs all activities rural or urban. There is a unity in all diverse ‘items’ of the self and in the self. Ginsberg uses the same device in “Howl” to pay his

Allen Ginsberg was one of the greatest admired Beat Generation poets, who particularly used free flowing, aggressive and occasionally a discourteous style of language to show that the rule and social structure over heterosexuality can be filled with opposition, so he decided to release queerness. Ginsberg strongly disputed capitalism and conformity that notably consisted of sexual repression, so he incorporated in the development of counterculture and challenged the heteronormative, procreation-driven society and was done with living at society’s limits. The idea of beat literature has a capricious form, although, also considers the customary narration techniques, and indeed masculinist and heterosexist prospects. The Beat generation indicates an individual that has been put down, or has been oppressed around with deviated norms. Therefore, this impression of queerness is a representation of him being an activist in society and used to take action to encourage his differences, which contributes to strange and prohibited behaviours. In this essay, being central to vicious and pleased queer performative spaces in the city and embodying sexuality, it will examine Allen’s, ‘Howl’ and ‘Sunflower Sutra’, interpreting queer theory, and that it is essential to ideas of gender and sexuality that are necessary for radical solidarity, Allen being a gay activist his principles of his character seem unreasonable or destructive in contemporary political circumstances in America’s sexual

Ginsberg reflects on the satire of people worshipping American culture when it is actually the cause of their trouble. Which glorifies a civilization restricting you to normality, and destroying the best minds. These parts take the reader behind Ginsberg’s belief of the “best minds” American culture changes across the fundamental desires to destroy them.

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.

He writes “ 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” ( lines 1-2). Frank Casale discusses these lines in his article “Literary Contexts in Poetry: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl.’” He writes “The poem’s opening line has become one of the most famous in American poetry. It serves as an opening into the experience of madness, drugs, prophecy, and a new vision that compose the field of the first part of the poem” (Casale 1). This line introduces the theme of the poem and introduces Ginsberg’s view on insanity and the Beat lifestyle. He supports those “who drove crosscountry seventytwo hours to find out if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had a vision to find out Eternity, / [...] who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other’s salvation” (60, 62). Casale continues by saying “In ‘Howl’ the Beats are repeatedly referred to as ‘angels,’ to connect those in search of the new consciousness or new vision [...] with the prophetic tradition. The quest for ‘kicks’ was not just an epicurean activity, but a serious search for freedom and new meaning in an America growing more conformist and authoritarian” (Casale 2). As a member of the Beat Generation, Ginsberg understands the Beat lifestyle and the way society views them, and he provides this generation with a

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

The Beat Generation is a literary movement during the 1950s that consisted of male authors including the widely known Allen Ginsberg, who explored American culture in their poems. The Beat Generation could be described as misogynistic and patriarchal due to their exclusion of women and concerns confined to only male outcasts. In Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 “Howl”, he brings his audience’s attention to male outcasts in society. In her 2015 “Howl”, a critical response to Ginsberg’s “Howl”, Amy Newman explores the oppression outcasted women endure in a male-dominated culture through the allusions of an admired female poet, Ginsberg’s original stanza form, and utilizing diction to convey a woman's perspective antithetically to Allen Ginsberg's original.

Therefore, in the very beginning, Ginsberg presents to the reader the subject and tone of the poem in the context of this question. Ginsberg’s questions make the audience realize the seriousness of the issues that this poem discusess, such as America, politics, war, humanity, and ethics.

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

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”.

It is evident from the very beginning that Ginsberg is disillusioned with American society, and he is ready to turn his back on what he feels has been oppressing him. "America I've given you all and now I'm