by Allen Ginsberg.

After being performed in 1956 at the Six Gallery poetryreading in San Francisco,

"Howl" became popular in part because its publisher and fellow Beat poet Lawrence

Ferlinghetti

was arrested by the San Francisco Police Department who charged that the poem was

obscene for its graphic sexual language.

The poem gained national attention when the American Civil Liberties Union

and several famous poets came to its defense, as this was

right in the middle of the Cultural Revolution in the center

of the Beatnik movement in San Francisco. The obscenity charges were

dropped,

but the trial highlighted the essence of the cultural war between the hippie

movement

and the establishment. As a result of the attention brought to "Howl" by the

obscenity case,

it became the manifesto of the Beat movement,

or the counter cultural literary movement which promoted nonconformity

and sexual freedom and criticized materialism,

militarism, consumerism, and conformity.

The poem was dedicated to Carl Solomon, a

friend and fellow patient at the psychiatric hospital where Ginsberg was

admitted in 1949

and is a political criticism of all the values promoted by mainstream

nineteen fifties America.

"Howl" was written under the influence of the drug peyote and expresses the pent-up frustration artistic energy and self-destruction

of Ginsberg's generation that was being suppressed by a dominant

American culture that valued conformity. In the poem, Ginsberg emphasizes

madness and the desire for artistic and intellectual freedom.

It was written in a stream-of- conscious style

and seems formless, but it is written in three parts

that all have a logical focus. Although it does not use

any type of traditional form, Ginsberg says it is broken into lines based on

where he would need to take a breath and should be read quickly as if it were one

long connected word.

The poem uses a similar style to Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"

in that it uses free verse (meaning

has no regular meter), cataloging (or the use of lists),

and anaphora (lines that are repeated

or repeat the same word or phrase such as repeating the word

"who" and "the best minds" in Part I, "Moloch"

in Part II, and "I'm with you in Rockland"

in Part III. The poem is postmodernist

in its personal nature and in that it is fragmented

and uses temporal distortion (or nonlinear timelines)

and maximalism (in that it is disorganized, lengthy,

and highly detailed). It also uses personal allusions

about people he knew as well as historical religious and cultural

allusions.

The tone is angry and critical of capitalism, materialism,

industrialism, the establishment, and societal repression of sexuality.

It is broken into three parts, and the later edition also has a fourth part,

which he names

the "footnote." The first part of the poem

"Howl" is by far the longest, and in it, he begins with the line,

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness"

and then proceeds to describe how he feels the best minds

are his friends, literary associates,

and acquaintances associated with the Beat Generation

who happen to also be heavy drug and alcohol users.

The poem gives a snapshot

of Beatnik life revealing heavy drug and alcohol use,

free love including open homosexual and bisexual relationships,

hysteria, love for jazz, poverty, sickness,

insanity, and anger of what he calls

"the angelheaded hipsters" who are "burning"

for a relationship with spirituality. Religion is presented in a

non-traditional

open manner mixing Jewish, Christian, Pagan, and Islamic religious references.

In this part of the poem, he gives a very detailed and

chaotic description of how the "best minds of his generation" are driven crazy

by the establishment in a nineteen fifties America

and reflects a hostility towards conformity, domesticity,

and mainstream middle-class American values that were promoted in the

nineteen fifties

and which he felt destroyed creativity and the freedom.

In Part II of the poem, Ginsberg describes whatis causing the best minds in his generation to go insane.

He says the establishment or America's institutions of higher education,

mental health, and public safety as well as the social forces and values of

mainstream America

and the evils of capitalism, industrialism,

militarism, and corporate power are what causes the hardship, violence, addiction,

and insanity

among the day's "best minds." He personifies these forces as in evil

uncaring monstrous God named Moloch. Moloch is an ancient deity to whom

child

sacrifices were made throughout the ancient Middle East.

Part III of "Howl" is directly addressed to Carl Solomon

to whom he dedicates the poem. In this part Ginsberg attempts to take the

reader into Solomon's madness

referring to the Columbia Presbyterian Psychological Institute where he spent

time with Carl

in 1949 by the fictional name of Rockland.

He names Carl the savior in this part the poem,

but he is a tragic savior who has been destroyed by Moloch.

He shows solidarity with Solomon and all the "best minds of his generation" by

repeating,

"I'm with you in Rockland" and ends

the poem with "in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-journey

on the highway across/ America in tears to the door of my cottage

in the Western night," showing a desire to connect with his friend

and with all who have been broken by the modern American

establishment.