Howl, Allen Ginsberg | M. L. Rosenthal (review date 23 February 1957)
M. L. Rosenthal (review date 23 February 1957)
SOURCE: Rosenthal, M. L. “Poet of the New Violence.” The Nation 184, no. 8 (23 February 1957): 162.
[In the following review, Rosenthal finds some fault with Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems but considers his poetry original.]
The two most striking pieces in Allen Ginsberg's pamphlet Howl and Other Poems—the long title-piece itself and “America”—are sustained shrieks of frank defiance. The themes are struck off clearly in the opening lines of each:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked …
and
America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
Isolated quotation, however, will not convey the real tone of these poems, though their drift is not hard to define. We have had smoking attacks on the civilization before, ironic or murderous or suicidal. We have not had this particular...
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