'Howl' By Allen Ginsberg

Howl by Allen Ginsberg is an extraordinary poem, whose author started off most of the post-modernism era. Allen Ginsberg wrote Howl for his own enjoyment and never assumed it would be published. So while writing this poem he said the most outrageous, scandalous things of that time that he would of never written for a crowd or audience. This is what makes the poem so interesting.

The poem has one main perspective and that is Ginsberg himself, but in a whole it is written as the perspective of the early Beat generation, which mostly consists of Allen and his friends. Perspective is defined as the identity of the narrative voice, the person through which the reader experiences the story. He uses tone, the “attitude” of the speaker conveyed through the language of the piece, to show his perspective. Ginsberg goes through a first-person narrative, but uses some third-person perspectives of the generation. There are three sections in this book that divide up Ginsberg’s perspectives and motives. In Part I he stats, “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. In Part II he says, “What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?” Finally Part III starts, “Carl Solomon! I'm with you in Rockland where you're madder than I am.” You can see the difference in tone, perspectives and themes in the three passages. Each section is extremely symbolism, the use of specific objects or images to represent abstract ideas, in its own way.

The structure of the poem is written in free verse, much like Walt Whitman. Free verse has very few distinct rules or boundaries. It is similar to blank verse in that it does not rhyme, but unlike blank verse, it is not written in iambic pentameter. The rhythm of free verse varies throughout this poem and the words flow along their own pattern, even though they don’t rhyme. An example I like from the text is, “Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.”

Ginsberg’s use of diction is quite captivating, it’s as if he is inventing his own words and new, exciting uses for mundane ones. To me the language creates a whole new world of images and events that are usually kept hidden. This kind of imagery is constant in Howl. I think the entire poem uses this literary device, using words to create visual and sound imagery. One sentence that sticks out to me and fits in to how I see his use of words as a new language is, “Yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars.”

A lot of different things, symbols, themes and images are significant in Ginsberg’s poem Howl. I think the most significant parts of this poem are the parts the Ginsberg can directly relate with, that show his personality and life style that not many knew about. He puts everything into his poetry, no matter how personal making it truly great.

Howl is one of the few poems are really enjoyed. It brings out this raw aspect of a certain era that who thought so different from yours, but it all actuality it’s not all that different from some of the current culture. This piece of writing is truly captivating writing and quite fun to read.