Howl

I really didn't like Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" when I first read it. I actually gave up halfway through the poem because it reads like I imagine a written drug trip would read. I'm glad we read the poem in class though. I appreciated it a bit more, even if i still think it's pretty weird. The poem is kind of beautiful (in a really twisted way) but sad. It has such a searching, hopeless feel to it. Some parts made me really uncomfortable (I'm glad I didn't end up reading the R-rated sections), but I suppose Ginsberg wasn't necessarily aiming to make people comfortable. I found it interesting that he put together words that really don't seem to go together, such as "screamed with joy" and "shrieked with delight". The phrases made me cringe a little, but they were effective. i really loved phrasing he used like "the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality" and "protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism."