Allen Ginsberg’s Howl
Introduction and Thesis
Books are the gateways to a new world, there have been many poetic writings throughout history. A poem that has stayed influential is “The Howl” by Allen Ginsberg, poet and the voice of the Beat Generation of the 1950s. This book expresses rebellion with a boldness, not known to its era.
About the Author
Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey. The son of Louis and Naomi Ginsberg, two Jewish members of the New York literary counterculture of the 1920s, Ginsberg was raised among several progressive political perspectives. “Ginsberg’s mother was a nudist whose mental health was a concern throughout the poet’s childhood.” He was admitted to Columbia University, and as a student there in the 1940s. Shortly after Howl and Other Poems was published in 1956 by City Lights Bookstore, it was banned for obscenity. The work overcame censorship trials, however, and “Howl” became one of the most widely read poems of the century, translated into more than twenty-two languages. Ginsberg went on to publish numerous collections of poetry, including Kaddish and Other Poems (City Lights, 1961), Planet News: Poems, 1961–1967 (City Lights, 1968), and The Fall of America: Poems of These States (City Lights, 1973), which won the National Book Award. On April 5, 1997, in New York City, he died from complications of hepatitis.
About the Poem
Howl by Allen Ginsberg is a poem that consists of three sections, “The title Howl indicates protest as cry, cry for all exploitation, repression, and subjugation”. Each of the sections is a prolonged riff of sorts on the same subject. He spoke of the best minds being destroyed in their generation which includes many including political figures, poets, musicians, etc. For Ginsberg, Moloch is associated with war, government, capitalism, and mainstream culture, all of which might be summed up by one of the poem’s most important concepts: the “machine” or “machinery.” Moloch is an inhuman monster that kills youth and love. The third section comprises his friend visiting him in a psychiatric institute. The poem ends with a vivid dream of the poet. The beat movement consisted of a phase wherein many artists expressed their alienation from conventional and adopted many styles that were away from the traditional ways of being at the time. Beat poets sought to liberate poetry from academic preciosity and bring it “back to the streets.” The poem refers to the same ‘wildness’ and away from the conventional minds that poets and other talented artists possess.
Legacy
The fact that this story was so outright blunt caused major controversy in it time period of the 1950s.
I am sorry I ran out of time to finish this essay. Thank you for being one of my favorite teachers this semester.
Work Cited
“Allen Ginsberg.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/allen-ginsberg.
Ginsberg, Allen. “Howl by Allen Ginsberg.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl.
“Allen Ginsberg: ‘Howl’ — AP Comp: The Beat Generation.” Google Sites, sites.google.com/site/ahsapcompthebeatgeneration/section-two/allen-ginsberg-howl.