Howl

Howl – Allen Ginsberg

A captivating poem which is at once shocking with its unrestricted language, undisguised portrayal of stark reality and detailed description of the subconscious. Written in 1955 as part of a collection called Howl and Other Poems, it was published in 1956. The world was little prepared for the audacity and effrontery of this poem back then and upon its release, the publisher was arrested and charged with dissemination of obscene material but later discharged after a judge ruled in the poem’s favour.  The poem is now renowned as one of the best works of the Beat Generation.

The Beat Generation consisted of a group of post WWII writers who, along with the cultural ideals they represented became prominent in the 1950s. Hedonists to the core and radical in their disposition, they experimented with illicit drugs, sex and sexuality, eastern religion, antagonising consumerism and the idealizing of ardent, non euphemistic means of expression and existence.

That said, the poem draws extensively from personal experiences of Ginsberg’s and that of his friends but notably among them, the main emotional inspiration for the poem, is Carl Solomon - a psychotic acquaintance of Ginsberg’s who he met in a mental institution and to whom the poem is dedicated.  Ginsberg’s description of youth is reminiscent of Eagleton’s lamentation of scholarly pursuits of the bygone era trivialised by the new generation.

The poem is divided into three parts and the first part, a lamentation, describes the naivety of the youths of America drawing from his own experiences, that of his friends and a host of other colourful characters he had encountered. He believed the interests of these characters were underrepresented in an oppressively regimented and consumerist era (again reminiscent of Eagleton’s discussion on the convention of normative). He describes their experiences in unrestrained and graphic language. This part of the poem is also notable for the use of the word ‘who’ which helps to personify the character the poem engages in the following part.

Moloch, originally a biblical figure and to whom children were sacrificed, again attributes character to the idea Ginsberg is waxing metaphorical about in the second part of the poem – industrial civilisation and its ugly manifestations. There is an echo of Davis’s view of Dubai in the description of Moloch and in parts, one may substitute ‘Moloch’ for ‘Dubai’:

Dubai whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Dubai whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovas! Dubai whose factories dream and choke in the fog! Dubai whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities!

Dubai whose love is endless oil and sand! Dubai whose soul is electricity and banks!

The third and final part is more refrained and is addressed directly to Carl Solomon. This part is also notable for the fixed base; ‘Rockland’ which is what he called the mental hospital which he briefly attended and in which he met Carl Solomon. Ginsberg also reveals here that his mother too had been mentally ill and may explain some of the sympathy he feels for Solomon. Of the structure, Ginsberg says Part III is, "pyramidal, with a graduated longer response to the fixed base."