When Allen Ginsberg wrote his poem "Howl" in 1956 there were many reactions. To many it was shocking and profane, involving words and subjects that simply were not spoken about. To others it was a literary breakthrough of modern poetry full of vitality and desire. In a three-hour effort, Ginsberg had created a poem that would stand against everything that the 1950's represented- a poem that would become an unignorable voice of the non-conformist "Beat" movement. Ginsberg's unabashed stance is clear. In "Poetry, Violence, and the Trembling Lambs" he writes:

Recent history is the record of a vast conspiracy to impose one level of mechanical consciousness of mankind... the suppression of contemplative individuality is nearly complete. The only immediate historical data that we can know and act on are those fed to our senses through the systems of mass communication... America is having a nervous breakdown.

Because of this, "Howl" received the criticism of the multitudes with accusations of its only substance being mad rantings and drug-induced gibberish. Nevertheless,

Between 1955-1960 the San Francisco area became alive with beatniks- writing, reading poetry, listening to jazz, and creating. It was called the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance and it had enormous effect on the way poetry would be viewed for the coming years.

It is a "bad" poem- it's not said right. It should be said so that the impact of the anger slams in every line- a fury to life the reader from his chair, force him to get up and walk about to read the thing. The disappointment is that Mr. Ginsberg fails in this when he seems to have the thing so close in hand, and instead corrupts it with sentimentality, bathos, Buddha and hollow talk of eternity (Rumaker 36).

...The emotional aspect was not so much protest at all by a declaration of unconditioned mind beyond protest, beyond resentment, beyond loser, beyond winner- way beyond winner- beyond winner or loser, a declaration of the unconditioned mind, a visionary declaration, a declaration of unworldly love that has no hope of the world and cannot change the world to its desire (French 24).

"Howl" has succeeded not only in changing modern poetry, but also in representing an important voice of non-conformity and self-exploration in America in the Fifties.

The fear that surrounded this McCarthyism made it difficult for Americans to think and act freely- if for no other reason than being afraid to be labeled a Communist. Ginsberg and others simply decided that there were many evils and untruths in a world of conformity and refused to join in. Not only did they refuse, but they also rejected everything that America's mass conformity stood for. Thus began the "Beat" movement.

Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed. New York:W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1999.

s worth it because to conform was like letting one's self die.

...Ginsberg implies that such individuals en masse add up to an oppressed society. This implication accords with Ginsberg's overall decision to position himself (as narrative voice of the poem) not off to the side as an impartial observer but squarely amid the oppressed individuals of whom he was writing (Sterritt 108).

Foster, Edward Halsey. Understanding the Beats. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1992.

The Beats were mostly middle-class white American who were college educated, many who were war veterans. They rejected the normal values of their time and instead sought a status of individuality, freedom of thought, and especially freedom of expression and creativity.

Ironically, the greatest threat to American freedom in the fifties was not the communism that was feared by so many, but the spread of irrational anti-communism and the rise of right wingers and fascists who were willing to suspend civil liberties and other constitutional rights and freedoms in order to fight an overblown Communist threat (Oakley 75).

They were running from the rat-race and the treadmills, and refusing to take part in the gray flannel suit working class suburban male identity. The Beats were searching for their own identity- one that was passionate, and real, and new. They explored themselve

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Approximate Word count = 2119
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)