Allen Ginsberg “Howl”
Was really glad we got some good explanation about this work
in class today. At first reading, the poem appears to be a non-rhythmical,
poorly written rant about some terrible life who did nothing good, and all
things miserable. In part two I feel like it’s an un enlightening parody, or
satire on Maloch, who symbolizes the United States taking away the people’s
humanity, to which I as when has any vast number of people ever had this
humanity? that’s beside the point. It is good to know that this poem was done
in the Dadaist fashion. Most helpful was the analogy between this poem and a
collage that our professor gave us today. Just as impressionist paintings
described the poetry as well. We find all sorts of macabre or grotesque things
in this poem. Things that are not well thought of. Ginsberg does a great job of
adding humor to lighten the almost whiney tone of this poem. These whines significant
and wanting to be heard as what the author probably thought was a howl. There’s
no telling how loud the howl was, and how much of an impact it actually made. I
do appreciate how the lack of style in Dadaist poetry allows writers to freely
express emotion in a kind of in your face approach. I would like to employ this
type of writing, similar to Ginsberg as kind of a lazy impressionism.
I would have to disagree, when reading Howl I fel that I was reading Ginsberg's direct thoughts as they flowed from his mind through his ink tipped pen. I felt the poem was a bit like a rant, but at the same time was a breaking of new boundaries during this time period. Also for most American poets of this time period, Ginsberg's poem Howl was the new form of literature.
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