through imagery. He closely juxtaposes the
lowly and (in conventional morality) the profane
with the divine, all under the umbrella of holi-
ness. The tramp is elevated to the same level as
the angels; the rhythms of bebop are equated in
their transformative power with the apocalypse,
the end of creation itself. Perhaps, Ginsberg
seems to suggest, the new Beat culture will
mark the end of Moloch’s creation.
Part II and the ‘‘Footnote’’ have a parallel
anaphoric structure, in that each part mirrors the
other with the repetition of a key word, respec-
tively, ‘‘Moloch’’ and ‘‘holy.’’ These two concepts
are antithetical, or in opposition, to each other.
Ginsberg subverts this antithesis when the same
skyscrapers that are condemned as the machinery
of Moloch in part II, are carried over to the ‘‘Foot-
note,’’ where they are declared holy. Because the
‘‘Footnote’’ has the last word, the poem ends in an
ecstatic redemption achieved not by any change in
external circumstances but by the poet’s transfor-
mative vision.
Source:Claire Robinson, Critical Essay on ‘‘Howl,’’ in
Poetry for Students, Gale, Cengage Learning, 2009.
Michael Schumacher
In the following essay, Ginsberg biographer Schu-
macher traces Ginsberg’s growth as a poet and his
journey toward writing ‘‘Howl.’’
Twenty-five years ago, while explaining his
method of spontaneous composition, Allen
Ginsberg stated that ‘‘it [was] possible to get in
a state of inspiration while improvising.’’ He
often improvised during poetry readings, using
an already published poem such as ‘‘America’’ as
the framework for lengthy new improvisations,
similar to the way jazz musicians used a song as
the framework for extended solos. It was much
more difficult, Ginsberg allowed, to accomplish
this when he was actually writing. Longer works
such as ‘‘Howl’’ orKaddish,two masterworks
generally acknowledged as towering examples
of Ginsberg’s skills in spontaneous composition,
required a lot of ingredients coming together at
once.
‘‘You have to be inspired to write something
like that,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not something you can
very easily do just by pressing a button. You have
to have the right historical and physical combi-
nation, the right mental formation, the right
courage, the right sense of prophecy, and the
right information, intentions, and ambition.’’
A handful of recently published books,
released to commemorate the fiftieth anniver-
sary of the writing and publishing of ‘‘Howl,’’
provide fresh and welcome insight into this cru-
cial combination of factors behind one of the
great achievements of American literature. The
story of the writing of ‘‘Howl’’ has been told and
retold by Ginsberg, most notably in his recently
reissued annotated edition of ‘‘Howl,’’ but all too
often a very important fact is lost in the telling:
while Ginsberg did indeed sit down at his type-
writer and, in a single extended work session,
compose the massive main body of one of the
most influential poems of the twentieth century,
he did not do so by simply pressing a button and
unleashing what his friend and mentor William
S. Burroughs called a ‘‘word horde.’’ Ginsberg
was twenty-nine in 1955 when he wrote ‘‘Howl,’’
and every one of those twenty-nine years seems
to have acted as an unwritten preamble to the
poem.
The author of ‘‘Howl’’ was not the same Allen
Ginsberg that the public came to know later in his
life after he’d reached his iconic level of fame. He
wasn’t the confident, long-haired, politically-
chargedandsavvyfiguredepictedinFredMcDar-
rah’s famous ‘‘Uncle Sam top hat’’ photo, or the
suited, professorial Ginsberg captured by Robert
Frank for later book jackets. The youthful Gins-
berg was a holy mess of psychological, intellectual,
and artistic characteristics and ambitions, often in
conflict yet always seeking the correct (as opposed
to proper) form of expression.
‘‘I’m writing to satisfy my egotism,’’ he
wrote in 194l, shortly before his fifteenth birth-
day. ‘‘If some future historian or biographer
wants to know what the genius thought and did
in his tender years, here it is. I’ll be a genius of
some kind of other, probably in literature, I
really believe it. (Not naively, as whoever readsTHE YOUTHFUL GINSBERG WAS A HOLY MESS
OF PSYCHOLOGICAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND ARTISTIC
CHARACTERISTICS AND AMBITIONS, OFTEN IN CON-
FLICT YET ALWAYS SEEKING THE CORRECT (AS
OPPOSED TO PROPER) FORM OF EXPRESSION.’’Howl