Howl Summary & Analysis
by Allen Ginsberg

Howl Summary & Analysis
by Allen Ginsberg

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Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (1956) is the best-known poem produced by the literary movement called the Beat Generation—not to mention one of the most controversial and influential poems of the 20th century. Dedicated to Ginsberg's friend Carl Solomon, who had been confined to a psychiatric institution, the poem is a lament for "the best minds of [Ginsberg's] generation," whom it portrays as having been "destroyed by madness." But it's also a tribute to rebellious artists, thinkers, and hipsters and an attack on the oppressiveness of western society, something it depicts as crushingly conformist, greedy, and violent. With affectionate sympathy, the poem ultimately suggests that the "mad" rebels are really the only sane exceptions to the insane culture of 20th-century America. Written in 1954-'55 and published in Howl and Other Poems (1956), "Howl" became an instant literary sensation and the target of censorship for its graphic language and sexual themes. Its victory in a 1957 obscenity trial paved the way for the publication of other controversial literature in the 1950s and '60s.

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