1. Grade Narratives for Short Story Essay
2. Poetry Reading, Sharing
3. Poetry Group Projects
4. Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012 Guest -- Charles Blackwell
5. Independent Essay
6. Questions?
This is a college level tranfer course, the second in a series where we will examine the poetics of life lived on the ground...as in rough and tumble, as in America at war with herself. This is a world art alone makes sense of, an artist's work is a gift freely shared like air...sympathetic systems aligned, the the fictive or imaginary worlds of possiblity simply an inhale or exhale away. This class is an opportunity to close your eyes and believe.
2 comments:
Rosetta Egan
Professor Sabir
English 1B
30 October 2012
Howl
Allen Ginsberg’s is one of the Beat poets who came to the fore in America in the 1950's. These poets were called Beats because Rock or Jazz music, was often played during poetry readings. In the poem, “Howl”, Ginsberg brazenly disregards the prudish morality of the 1950’s to say what he thought and felt about life and the crushing effect of societal pressures on people, especially on himself and his friends. "Howl" was initially banned, until the US Supreme Court agreed with Ginsberg and declared the poem to be art not pornography. The poem “Howl” is Ginsberg’s bold protest against the outright destructive effect on human beings of organized religion, Mental Health care system, capitalism, the Military Industrial Complex as well as the rigid uniformity of accepted society in America.
Ginsberg was not only in the vanguard of the anti-war movement, he protested many other aspects of the society he inhabited and led the way for others, such as Bob Dylan. Ginsberg touches the threat of the H-bomb that loomed over the world in the 1950’s when he writes “listening to the crack / of doom on the hydrogen jukebox” (Ginsberg 50-51) Ginsberg makes many references to gay sex as well as heterosexual sex and “Howl” was ahead of the Gay Rights movement by almost twenty years. For example he describes a homosexual act and finishes with “and screamed with joy” (117). Ginsberg speaks of some of the more barbaric treatments given the mentally ill at the time he wrote “Howl” when he says: “lobotomy . . . insulin . . . electricity hydrotherapy” (245, 247). As for Ginsberg’s view of the destructive power of capitalism, he points to those “burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue” (209 -210). Madison Avenue is used to describe the business of advertising that sells consumerism, the life blood of Western capitalism.
In “Howl” Ginsberg is speaking for many of the artists of his time who do not quite fit in to everyday society. He frequently speaks of Moloch, a mythical deity that demands the sacrifice of children and equates the demons of his day such as capitalism, mental health care and society’s condemnation of homosexuality with Moloch. This poem is dedicated to his friend, Carl Solomon, a mental patient.
Works Cited
Ginsberg, Allen. “Howl”. 1955. Poets.org. web, 31,October 2012.
Bibliography
Ginsberg, Allen. “Howl”. 1955. Poets.org. web, 31,October 2012.
Gigot, Francis. "Moloch." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 31 Oct. 2012 .
Caitlin Rockwell
Professor Sabir
English 1B
Howl
In the poem “Howl”, Allen Ginsberg describes how he feels about life and all its madness. In this very long poem Ginsberg expresses how he feels about life through sex, drugs, politics, war and religion, he does not hold back on what he wants to say and how he expresses it. Madness is the most important theme in this poem and reoccurs repeatedly. He uses insanity and insane to talk about people and friends and how mental hospitals have inhumane ways of treating people. His form of reality shaped by all this madness has changed his views on religion, politics, sex, drugs and war.
Allen Ginsberg’s poem first line says, “ I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked” (1) This quote shows how he feels about his “friends” and the people around him. He talks about mental hospitals, mental disorders, list of treatments, and talks about his friend Carl Solomon who has a mental illness. It seems as though Ginsberg views normal people in society as insane and people who are mentally ill as genius. Carl Solomon plays a big role on Ginsberg’s view on the mentally ill, how people are treated in mental hospitals and if they are generally mad or made mad through treatments and drug inducements.
Ginsberg’s poem was detailed with very descriptive language, he is not afraid to say what he wants and share his views. Its very controversial for people to view others as mad or insane and he put his feelings out there for everyone to read. Writing about sex, drugs, war, and mental illness issues show that he didn’t care if his poem was too out controversial he wanted people to read it to get a different view from what they would normally read.
"Howl, Parts I & II." - Poets.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. .
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