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7th out of 1,020 books
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1,053 voters
Howl and Other Poems
The prophetic poem that launched a generation when it was first published in 1965 is here presented in a commemorative fortieth Anniversary Edition.
When the book arrived from its British printers, it was seized almost immediately by U.S. Customs, and shortly thereafter the San Francisco police arrested its publisher and editor, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, together with City Lig...more
When the book arrived from its British printers, it was seized almost immediately by U.S. Customs, and shortly thereafter the San Francisco police arrested its publisher and editor, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, together with City Lig...more
Paperback, 56 pages
Published
January 1st 2001
by City Lights
(first published 1956)
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Preface: Though I enjoyed this book as a whole, the focus this evening will be on Howl. Why this one alone? Simply put, I am writing these jumbled thoughts as a dedication to a friend. Rather, I am dedicating this to a cluster of friends, each of whom have chosen, in one form or another, to leave this earthly plain and shatter vehemently into oblivion. Suffice it to say that this series of words and interpretations will be highly personal, and therefore guided by inflated emotions which have for...more
Nov 23, 2010
Brent Legault
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
the angelheaded, the negrostreeted
Shelves:
regrets-i-ve-had-a-few
Muddled, addled and overrated. In fact, any rating, even a single star or half-moon, is too much for this amateur-hour of a "poem." It might have played well when shouted out to a roomful of arrogant drunks, but on the page it droops, it teeters under the weight of all of those ungainly adjectivies and finally collapses in a fog of its own flatulance. I saw the best minds of my generation ignore this long, long limerick. Now, only nostalgists and know-naughts still cling to its pages of ill-repu...more
18 likes · like · see review
Allen Ginsberg, a sad and lonely man, wrote this to impress Kerouac, another sad and lonely man.
Over the years, a lot of sad and lonely people haven't gotten over the how much that first fucking line resonates with them.
The whole best minds/generation/destroyed/madness line.
Ten years ago, this was a 5-star poem. Ten years from now, it will be a 3-star poem.
That's just called growing up, folks.
Over the years, a lot of sad and lonely people haven't gotten over the how much that first fucking line resonates with them.
The whole best minds/generation/destroyed/madness line.
Ten years ago, this was a 5-star poem. Ten years from now, it will be a 3-star poem.
That's just called growing up, folks.
17 likes · like · see review
ah, ranty rants and beautiful language and a deep deep sense of the long poetic sentence. and madness writ large. and industrial dissolution. and that wasteland that is america.
"who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic pingpong table, resting briefly in catatonia,
returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible madman doom of the wards of the madtowns of the East,
Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, rocking and rolling in the midnight solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a nightmare, bodies turned to stone as heavy as the moon,
with mot...more
returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible madman doom of the wards of the madtowns of the East,
Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, rocking and rolling in the midnight solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a nightmare, bodies turned to stone as heavy as the moon,
with mot...more
Allen Ginsberg typifies the beat generation. Basically, a large amount of stoned/drunk pretentious hipsters who claimed they hated hipsters. And without much writing skill at that. The only exception to this is Jack Kerouac, who was actually a good writer, and did claim numerous times that he was not a beat. That being said, Howl is one of the longest, most terrible pieces of rubbish I've read in a long time. This deserves less than one star. I must admit, he does manage to incorporate a fair am...more
4 likes · like · see review
While trying to be more serious on the subject of any kind of literature that I happen to read (per a discussion with a friend), I found myself in Borders, browsing in the poetry section. Generally, I don't bother with bookstore poetry sections. They tend to be filled with "best poetry" anthologies, volumes of Dickinson, Frost and a handful of other great poets, and that's it. I don't have a problem with any of that, it's just that there's not a lot of variety, and I don't believe poetry can rea...more
Wiki just taught me this:
The poem's ending is also highly optimistic, a promise to put his "queer shoulder to the wheel," although the original draft ended on a bleaker note: "Dark America! toward whom I close my eyes for prophecy, / and bend my speaking heart! / Betrayed! Betrayed!"
Which only makes me more excited about my long-ago decision to get "america I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel" inked on myself (today!). it's strangely reassuring to know that even in the middle of that dis...more
The poem's ending is also highly optimistic, a promise to put his "queer shoulder to the wheel," although the original draft ended on a bleaker note: "Dark America! toward whom I close my eyes for prophecy, / and bend my speaking heart! / Betrayed! Betrayed!"
Which only makes me more excited about my long-ago decision to get "america I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel" inked on myself (today!). it's strangely reassuring to know that even in the middle of that dis...more
4 likes · like · see review
Mar 08, 2008
Jacob
added it
The other night I was drinking in North Beach after reading at City Lights and Matt Rohrer bought a Howl t-shirt at City Lights and came to the bar and put it on. The first one he bought was too big and while it fit over his frame it still draped over him like a dress, or a rowboat, or a huge box, but maybe it wasn't that bad. Maybe it draped over him like a tight-fitting rowboat, one that he could use to row across the bay to Oakland for a punk show. The thing with rowboats is you have to make...more
Η συλλογική εικόνα είναι ότι Γκίνγκσμπεργκ έχει δικό του feeling και touch με ωμότητα στη γραφή (όπως και οι άλλοι μπιτ), αλλά και με πολιτικό περιεχόμενο. Στον αντίποδα αυτού όμως τα πάμπολλα γεγονότα και πρόσωπα της εποχής που αναφέρονται σε κάποια από τα ''μεγάλα'' ποιήματά του, καθιστούν το περιοχόμενο καθεαυτού προτεινόμενο σε αυτούς που είχαν ζήσει/γνωρίσει την Αμερική του 1960 (και πολύ πιο πριν) και σε συγκεκριμένες περιοχές της -κατα την άποψη μου-. Ενδιαφέρουσες ήταν οι αναφορές σε άλλ...more
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Ginsberg reading his poems (courtesy of the gorgeous UbuWeb):
http://www.ubu.com/sound/ginsberg.html
scroll down to October 25, 1956 and May 4, 1995.
I read the poem in preparation for the movie, I confess.
Obviously I had already come across selections (everybody has) but never actually read it top to bottom (many haven't).
Allen Ginsberg was Walt Whitman reincarnated, nobody will question the clich�� I guess. The high-pitched declamative tone, at once oral and heightened, the stretched verses,...more
http://www.ubu.com/sound/ginsberg.html
scroll down to October 25, 1956 and May 4, 1995.
I read the poem in preparation for the movie, I confess.
Obviously I had already come across selections (everybody has) but never actually read it top to bottom (many haven't).
Allen Ginsberg was Walt Whitman reincarnated, nobody will question the clich�� I guess. The high-pitched declamative tone, at once oral and heightened, the stretched verses,...more
Jun 09, 2013
James
added it
When I first read Howl I found Poetry. Howl is one of the those poems where the reader and the printed page are in a symbiotic relationship. You either love it or hate. It is written in the long-form epic/rabbinic style that Ginsberg was known for, many copy but only he was the master of. The reason why this poem is so important is because it's confusing, juxtaposing way of its creation. There seems to be no real order about it...the spewing forth of every thought, emotion, incident, creative sp...more
Allen Ginsberg is an important character in not only American Literature, but in American Culture as well. His denouncements of capitalism, materialism, and sexual repression have guided a generation of disillusioned young people. Of course, the public figure may be a captivating force, but we must not forget the work that launched his fame: the controversial 1956 book of poems which won an obscenity trial and much literary debate. Its substance is still debated today and I am willing to put in...more
The sheer energy radiating out of the first stanzas in the eponymous 'Howl' strikes out at the audience as sharply as it did upon its first reading at the 1955 six gallery reading. The 'unshaven rooms', 'tobacco haze' and 'wine drunkenness' of the world of the beat poets and writers is recreated in this obscenely descriptive poem, a testament to the skills of raconteur Allen Ginsberg - his intense descriptions and depictions of the America he simultaneously loves and despises capture his audienc...more
Hey! I read "Howl" when I was in 10th grade, checked it out one sunny afternoon at my local library, the shelf it was on was dusty. Honestly, I didn't know very much about "The Beat Generation" (later learned that three men Kerouac-Ginsberg-Burroughs don't make up a whole generation), even though both of my parents were 'baby-boomers', were raised in middle class households, as well as being college educated. I'm glad that I liked this poem, it was fun to read. Just because I found it influentia...more
Howl is about the interior life.Its a animalistic cry to the heavens.
Pollock painted emotions and what was inside of his mind instead of
anything to do with nature.The 1950s method actors and Pollock howl
like Ginsberg.This poem is prophetic .It anticipated the "tune in...
drop out of the 1960s"Some people still live this lifestyle today.
These animalistic artists have convinced me to not join the rat race.
Yet Im not going to get drunk and do illegal drugs.Im just going to
get a worthless fun find my...more
Pollock painted emotions and what was inside of his mind instead of
anything to do with nature.The 1950s method actors and Pollock howl
like Ginsberg.This poem is prophetic .It anticipated the "tune in...
drop out of the 1960s"Some people still live this lifestyle today.
These animalistic artists have convinced me to not join the rat race.
Yet Im not going to get drunk and do illegal drugs.Im just going to
get a worthless fun find my...more
Perhaps it was fate that brought me to this random hotel room in San Francisco, that happened to have a copy of Howl on the bedside table, in lieu of a Bible. And it was definitely fate that compelled to read this collection of poetry out loud, despite being tired and droopy eyed from the airplane that surely lives off passengers' livelihoods. I am glad that fate let me meet this collection of poetry and I am ashamed that I have not known this until now.
As a foreigner with very slim knowledge of...more
As a foreigner with very slim knowledge of...more
Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" was probably the dividing line between two Americas, two generations, two sexualities, two cultures. He was of course indicted and arrested and this poem barred from publication - of course again making it sell a lot more copies eventually - but in a way he was America's first great modern poet. The first line became a sort of countercultural national mantra:
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked"
"Howl" presents a view...more
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked"
"Howl" presents a view...more
I have to confess, I wasn't too interested in Ginsberg until I watched the film Howl http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049402/ with James Franco. I've always felt a slight distaste for the Beats. I can live with their aesthetic callousness, but it's their convenient lack of discipline that has always aggravated me. The movement began based on collectivism and ended up focused, willingly or not, on just a few worshipped writers. I've read Kerouac and Burroughs, but haven't reviewed them on goodreads b...more
My Review For The Howl by Allen Ginsberg
All I can say is WOW! If ever there WERE a person who
COULD be called as THAT kind of "spewer out of words" kind of person,
the sort who lets his words flow, just letting it ALL hang out, no holds barred, throwing
all sense of caution into the wind kind of person, well, THAT kind of person is
the only one who could— strike that—would have written "The Howl." Now THAT'S a
TRUE RANT, albeit, a rythymically, alarmingly poetical and ultimately coming to make
s...more
All I can say is WOW! If ever there WERE a person who
COULD be called as THAT kind of "spewer out of words" kind of person,
the sort who lets his words flow, just letting it ALL hang out, no holds barred, throwing
all sense of caution into the wind kind of person, well, THAT kind of person is
the only one who could— strike that—would have written "The Howl." Now THAT'S a
TRUE RANT, albeit, a rythymically, alarmingly poetical and ultimately coming to make
s...more
2 likes · like · see review
This is book is overflowing with beat brilliance and dharma and drugs and sensuality and politics and idealogies of every kind; it was Allen Ginsber's vigourus attack on conformity and captialist vampireism and a personal invitation to go on an erotic escapade and smoke a little dope. Howl and Other Poems, an innocent name place on an innocent looking book, grabbed America by the balls , and like the offspring of a pitbull and crocodile, it refused to let go. The title poem itself is a profound...more
Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem 'Howl' gives a voice to those who were dissatisfied and alienated in Eisenhower's America. 'Howl' became an anthem for the developing counterculture highlighting the high cultural gloom of human possibility at the hands of an imperial America with excess commodities where aesthetics are of great importance.
Written in three parts 'Howl' communicates scenes, characters and scenarios drawn from Ginsberg's own personal journals and experience. The opening line of Part One...more
Written in three parts 'Howl' communicates scenes, characters and scenarios drawn from Ginsberg's own personal journals and experience. The opening line of Part One...more
Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" is just over a half century old now, and it will do us no harm to review the first stanzas yet again, for the are as vatic, volcanic and visionary as they were when they first saw print in 1955.The transcendent beauty of a inflamed mind that's suddenly and completely found an articulation for the unspeakable has never been captured better. "Howl" was the perfect bit of literary insanity to appear in a decade where America had collectively laid down and played dead:
I...more
I...more
I can still remember vividly the first time (and currently the only time) that I ever heard a recitation of Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'. It was at a comfortable New Music salon concert, a monthly get-together hosted by a professor of composition at my university. The night had been filled with improvisational new music, sound sculptures, and poetry recitations, and around the three-fourths mark, one of my music professors had humbly sat down in a comfortable chair in front of the small audience and...more
While I enjoyed some of the vivid descriptions and interesting descriptors, I find I am not a big fan of beat poetry (or at least this beat poet). What emanates from the mere words is a sense that because they chose to live "low" and experiment experiencing life from this level that they are transcendent to scathingly dull and unaware us - society. They revel in the living in squalor like rich mamma's boys that got to go play in the mud of the garden. But they wouldn't appreciate the dirt on the...more
"I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked"
Yeah, well, so have I. I just didn't feel compelled to write about it.
Whilst waiting for Middlemarch to arrive I sought out a slim volume from the bookshelf and rediscovered a "pocket poets" edition of Ginsberg's classic that Tom had bought for me from City Lights bookstore in San Franscisco in 2003, still with a charming letter tucked in the jacket.
I'm not normally much of a poetry fan, and generally fi...more
Yeah, well, so have I. I just didn't feel compelled to write about it.
Whilst waiting for Middlemarch to arrive I sought out a slim volume from the bookshelf and rediscovered a "pocket poets" edition of Ginsberg's classic that Tom had bought for me from City Lights bookstore in San Franscisco in 2003, still with a charming letter tucked in the jacket.
I'm not normally much of a poetry fan, and generally fi...more
This booklet (only around 50 pages) is a recent gift to me from Moshkata's father, which I was extremely happy to receive! So thoughtful and tasteful of him! It is a very beautiful little edition, which I suspect he found, in perfect condition, in some used book store, judging from the little prices inserted with a pencil on the first and last pages of the book.
I've heard and read about Allen Ginsberg, but never really read anything by him so far. This book was a wonderful introduction to his wo...more
I've heard and read about Allen Ginsberg, but never really read anything by him so far. This book was a wonderful introduction to his wo...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The graphic history of the Beats inspired me to read this, of course, and in any case I was long overdue and would have been outstaying my welcome in this country had I not taken immediate action, so I did. Perhaps it would have been better if I'd read this poem before the graphic account though, because now I was all too aware of its history, how Howl made Ginsberg famous overnight after the now legendary public reading at City Lights in San Francisco, in 1955. So I couldn't hold my own horses...more
Ginsberg was not of my time. Either was Tennyson, Blake or Neruda – so what’s the big deal? Why do I think I won’t like the ‘beat poets?’ Could it be because I don’t like jazz? Nah, it is just--that microcosm of 60’s free expression rebellion—I guess, you had to be there. But HOWL is a great explosion of words and despite the arcane references and self absorbed imagery, its raw passion leaves you breathless.
“and who therefore ran through the icy streets obsessed with a sudden flash of the alche...more
“and who therefore ran through the icy streets obsessed with a sudden flash of the alche...more
1 like · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Howl the Movie | 7 | 10 | 4 hours, 20 min ago | |
| The Fiftieth Anniversay of Howl | 12 | 70 | Sep 21, 2012 07:58am | |
| Banned Books Club : April's Book | 4 | 33 | Apr 03, 2012 07:14pm |
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was the son of Louis and Naomi Ginsberg, two Jewish members of the New York literary counter-culture of the 1920s. Ginsberg was raised among several progressive political perspectives. A supporter of the Communist party, Ginsberg's mother was a nudist whose mental health was a concern throughout the poet's childhood. According to biographer Barry Miles, "Naomi's illness gave A...more
More about Allen Ginsberg...
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“Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel!”
—
112 people liked it
“Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy!
The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand
and asshole holy!
Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is
holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an
angel!
The bum's as holy as the seraphim! the madman is
holy as you my soul are holy!
The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is
holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy!
Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy
Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cas-
sady holy the unknown buggered and suffering
beggars holy the hideous human angels!
Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks
of the grandfathers of Kansas!
Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop
apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana
hipsters peace & junk & drums!
Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy
the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the
mysterious rivers of tears under the streets!
Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the
middle class! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebell-
ion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!
Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria &
Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow
Holy Istanbul!
Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the
clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy
the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch!
Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the
locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina-
tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the
abyss!
Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours!
bodies! suffering! magnanimity!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent
kindness of the soul!”
—
75 people liked it
More quotes…
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy!
The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand
and asshole holy!
Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is
holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an
angel!
The bum's as holy as the seraphim! the madman is
holy as you my soul are holy!
The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is
holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy!
Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy
Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cas-
sady holy the unknown buggered and suffering
beggars holy the hideous human angels!
Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks
of the grandfathers of Kansas!
Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop
apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana
hipsters peace & junk & drums!
Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy
the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the
mysterious rivers of tears under the streets!
Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the
middle class! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebell-
ion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!
Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria &
Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow
Holy Istanbul!
Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the
clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy
the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch!
Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the
locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina-
tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the
abyss!
Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours!
bodies! suffering! magnanimity!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent
kindness of the soul!”
Jul 05, 2011 06:19pm
Jan 16, 2013 03:35pm