The poem “Howl,” by Allen Ginsberg is broken down into four very distinct sections, including a footnote. The first section describes how the narrator saw what he described as “the best minds” of his generation. Ginsberg describes poets, drug addicts, musicians, and psychiatric patients in the worst of conditions. The first part has a gloomy feel; the reader perceives a very negative and dark sensation.
The second part is very repetitive. The word “Moloch” is repeated continuously throughout this section of the poem. This second part also has a negative feel. Words like “filth” and “ugliness” make the reader get a nasty feeling.
The third part is once again very repetitive with the fraise “I’m with you in Rockland” used 19 times. As is the pattern here, a negative feel is conveyed through lines like “you’ve murdered your twelve secretaries,” and “we are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter.”
The fourth part entitled “Footnote to Howl” fits the same description as the previous three. The word “Holy” is continuously repeated almost so much so that the reader becomes sick of reading it. Fraises like “my mother in the insane asylum” and “the jazz bands marijuana" give this section the same negative, dark, and hopeless feeling as three sections before it.
I did not like this poem very much. In order to understand the poem, the reader has to understand the background of Allen Ginsberg. The reader cannot fully understand or enjoy the poem unless he has a grasp of Ginsberg’s personal past. I also felt that the poem had a negative feeling, a hopeless feeling. The constant references to insane asylums and psychiatric patients and drug abuse make the poem un-relatable to the average reader, and the constant repetition of words and phrases make the negative feelings seem like they go on and on in a repetitive, never ending cycle. All in all this was not one of my favorite poems.
I did not like this poem very much. In order to understand the poem, the reader has to understand the background of Allen Ginsberg. The reader cannot fully understand or enjoy the poem unless he has a grasp of Ginsberg’s personal past. I also felt that the poem had a negative feeling, a hopeless feeling. The constant references to insane asylums and psychiatric patients and drug abuse make the poem un-relatable to the average reader, and the constant repetition of words and phrases make the negative feelings seem like they go on and on in a repetitive, never ending cycle. All in all this was not one of my favorite poems.
I definitely agree with your assessment of "Howl." I feel the same way about the allusions he makes and how the poem is hard to read without knowing what he is talking about. I really like the blog and it sums up the works really well.
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