Howl by Allen Ginsberg

Howl by Allen Ginsberg

Publisher: HarperPerennial (2001)

Where I Got It: The Poetry Foundation (Howl, Footnote to Howl)

12 pages

Book Rating: 5 Stars

Content Ratings:

Violence: Mild-Moderate-Brutal

Swearing: Clean-Light-Filthy

Sexual Content: White-Pink-Red

Summary:

Howl is a free verse poem in three parts with a footnote, and contains social commentary from the perspective of the “Beat Generation.”

My Thoughts:

This contains very vivid imagery of a generation of intellectuals beaten down by social rules and pressure for conformity. The homosexual imagery was shocking and controversial for its time and led to an obscenity trial, which ironically probably only served to make it more popular. Some of the imagery is beautiful, some is sad and some is more than a bit angsty. This is definitely something you could read over and over and continue to find new things in.

Quotes:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked—“-Allen Ginsberg, Howl

“—a lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills off Empire State out of the moon—” -Allen Ginsberg, Howl

“—the one eyed shrew that does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectual golden threads of the craftsman’s loom—“-Allen Ginsberg, Howl

“—with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies—“-Allen Ginsberg, Howl