On Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t get this so-called masterpiece of poetry when I first read it, or trying to read it would probably be a more accurate description. I trudged through the first couple of pages, not sure of what it means (Come on! Seriously, couldn’t he just write it in English?), my dictionary at my side I tried very hard to make sense of it all but it was so tiring that I quit reading it for a couple of days. I thought it might be helpful to do some research on the author and his background before giving it another try. And in fact it proved quite helpful to know Allen Ginsberg’s story and to learn about the ‘Beat Generation’ of the 1950’s. A generation that was influenced by the post-World War II atmosphere in America, trying to escape or more precisely revolt against the rigid system, the received standards, by the means of poetry, music, usage of drugs and alternative lifestyles such as acting out homosexuality. But it wasn’t before I listened to the recording of him reading the poem to an audience in San Francisco in 1955, and watching the short film that was trying to animate the meaning of the poem, that I even began to understand what this guy was talking about. At this point I should probably mention that I am not very good in analysing gibberish, but hey, that’s life isn’t it? Making sense of things you don’t understand.

‘Howl’ is said to be the essential work of poetry of the ‘Beat Generation’, with Jack Kerouacs’ ‘On the Road’ being the literature equivalent to it. The poem is an early confession of Ginsberg about being gay, although he does not literally say it, I think it becomes very obvious in the text that he is actually talking about things he experienced himself. Which brings me to the analysis of the text, well at least I think that’s what it is…that’s of course if I understood him right and was actually able to make sense of it all.

The poem is divided into three parts and is dedicated to Ginsberg’s friend Carl Solomon who he had met during his brief stay in the psychiatric hospital which is called ‘Rockland’ in the poem. The first part is the description of a whole generations’ life situation: Sex, drugs and Jazz portray their inner disunity, ideals and dreams which are nonconformist with the ideals and values of the general American way of living, it is an analysis of the American dream which leads into the

                                                                       ‘Moloch’

of an greedy success orientated society, which destroys natural resources and literally gorges itself on people. The ‘Moloch’ is the main subject in the second part of the poem. This part to me deserves the title ‘Howl’ because it feels like he is screaming and ranting, it is clearly the most negative, angry and grim section of the poem. The third and last part is directly addressed to his friend Carl Solomon and has a completely different feel to it compared to part one and especially the very dark and angry second part. He repeatedly says:

                                                       ‘I am with you in Rockland’

and is talking a lot about the Soul

                    ‘…the soul is innocent and immortal it should never die ungodly…’

‘Where fifty more shocks will never return your soul to its body again from its pilgrimage to a cross in the void’.

To me this part has almost a prayer-like, religious atmosphere.

The poem in most parts is autobiographical, which I think is one of the reasons why it is very hard to read and understand as he constantly refers to things or people of his life that one can only (fully) understand when researching about his life, for example: 

"Who went out whoring through Colorado in myriad stolen night-cars, N. C. secret hero of these poems."

 N.C. stands for Neal Cassidy whom he had a sexual relationship with.

                                                                      “Accusing the radio of hypnotism...”

 which is a reference to his mother who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

                                                "Pilgrim's State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid halls ..."

 these are the names of psychiatric hospitals that his mother stayed in. As mentioned earlier, it was very hard for me to read this poem and quite frankly, I hated it at first. I hate things I don’t understand because they make me feel stupid. But the more I read ‘Howl’, and I did have to read it several times, the more I came to like it. Especially after watching the movie and listening to the recording as the rhythm of it gives it so much life and meaning. I think to really appreciate this work you HAVE TO listen to Ginsberg reading it himself, breathing and pausing at certain points, stressing sentences or words. Having said I came to like the poem, I really don’t get the whole idea about the ‘Beat Generation’. Yes, it might be the case that there was/is a rigid system and yes there are rules everyone has to follow which sometimes suck and yes maybe it is unfair that people who speak their mind weren’t admitted into the university because they didn’t conform with the ideas of the time and the university itself. But I think it is important rules exist and I don’t understand people who are always trying to be against the system (except of course it is a totalitarian system or the like). Sometimes it feels like they are just against something to be against it, if you know what I mean. Advocating your ideals, like treating gays the same or freedom of speech and being able to study no matter what your religious, sexual or political background is, of course is a good thing, but I don’t like the way they tried to accomplish it. It’s over the top; can’t they just make their point without having sex in public, swearing and doing drugs? They just want to provoke at any cost.