Howl Questions and Answers
Howl
How does Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" critique America and the American dream?
Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" critiques America and the American dream by comparing it to "Moloch," a destructive biblical idol, and attacking celebrated features of American life, such as skyscrapers and...
Howl
Analyze the quote "who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism," from...
This line turns on a metaphor that likens cigarette smoking to capitalism. Cigarette smoking creates a "narcotic tobacco haze" for the smoker. The narcotic is nicotine, which calms people down and...
Howl
Are there explicit references to sex in Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"?
Yes, there are explicit references to sex in Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl," but they are most often disguised in terms and images that were intended to shock the mainstream reading public.
Howl
Analyze the form and rhetorical devices in "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg.
Allen Ginsberg's iconic poem "Howl" contains many themes or messages, and one of those themes which ties all three parts of the poem together is the concept of religion. Ginsberg would not claim to...
Howl
In "Howl", how does Ginsberg celebrate counterculture by breaking poetic conventions?
Beat poet Allan Ginsberg's "Howl" is unquestionably a poetic celebration of the counterculture of the 1950s (he first shared it at a poetry reading in 1955). While it is a poem, "Howl" breaks many...
Howl
Does "Howl" celebrate or condemn drug use?
“Howl” neither celebrates nor condemns drug use. It’s probably more accurate to argue that Ginsberg romanticizes or glorifies drugs and the role that they play in the lives of his nonconformist...
Howl
What is the nature of the illness/madness in Ginsberg’s “Howl”? Can it be liberating?
In Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” mental illness or madness is the result of society’s oppression. The sensitive people are literally driven crazy by the violence of society, but they are the ones who...
Howl
In "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, what is the connection between insanity and conformity?
The poem "Howl" by the beat poet Allen Ginsberg is a celebration, or at least a documentation, of the counterculture of the 1950s. He writes about both insanity and conformity, and for him there is...
Howl
How would you characterize the world Ginsberg describes? Is it accurate or hyperbolic?
I'd say Ginsberg was describing the world as he saw it and to make his vision graphic and to convey the images as vivid as possible he did use hyperbole. His descriptions for the most part are...
Howl
Can you summarize each part of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl"?
As one of the poets of the "Beat Generation," Allen Ginsberg experimented with the spontaneity and flow of emotion that often characterizes jazz; thus his writing is often called "typewriter jazz,"...
Howl
How does the term "typewriter jazz" apply to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"?
The authors and poets of the beatnik generation frequently refer to jazz music in their writings, not only by specifically mentioning the music and artists within the genre, but also by the manner...
Howl
How does "Howl" compare in terms of personal feelings to "Daddy," "Lady Lazarus," "The Fish," "The Moose," "Skunk...
"Howl" is one of the least personally emotional--expressing the least personal authorial emotion--of the list of poems presented by Plath, Bishop, and Lowell. In "Howl," Ginsberg is subjectively...
Howl
How can the irony in "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg be analyzed?
"Howl" is an edgy, controversial poem that uses irony as a key technique in order to create a sense of "distance" between the reader and the content.
Howl
What role does anaphora play in Ginsberg's "Howl" to depict individual madness and resistance to the government?
Anaphora is the repetition of words, phrases, or lines in a written work, and even a cursory reading of Allen Ginsberg's iconic poem "Howl" reveals his consistent use of this technique to emphasize...
Howl
Does the poem "Howl" react to 1950s America's conformity, blandness, and militarism? Is it avant-garde or kitsch?
It's difficult to describe as avant-garde any poem from as late as the 1950s. So much had already been done experimentally in verse before this that poets for the most part could only make...