This book, the first volume of poetry published by beatnik legend Allen Ginsberg, completely fulfilled all expectations I had of one of the most influential collections of poems seen in the twentieth century. It was this volume that cemented Ginsberg's status as an edgy icon of counterculture, and while I don't know anywhere near enough about the history of Western poetry to be able to say with much veracity "and rightly so", but I'd like to heartedly endorse that sentiment nonetheless.
The first titular poem, 'Howl', is a riotous thirteen-page romp through the abject squalour and grim hedonistic self-destruction of what we can only presume was life on the cutting-edge as a Beat poet. The second, 'Kaddish', is a slow-burning twenty-five page lament for his deceased mother, recalling vividly some of the less-than-pleasant times she had toward the end. My personal favourites from the collection are 'Poem Rocket' (sending a poem out into the infinite space-time void as though it were a rocket - quoted at the end of this post), 'America' (basically just rips the USA's consumption-war-empire-industry to shreds - poetically), 'Laughing Gas' (an extended meditation on the blink-into-nothingness that consciousness goes through when taking nitrous oxide), 'Ignu' (which it's just a delight to read and wonder which exuberant acquaintances he had in mind when writing this characterful catalogue of charmingly-bad tendencies), and 'Song' (which is just beautiful). Needless to say, each and every poem in this collection is worth reading several times - if you're the unsqueamish adventurous sort of reader.
I can't really think of any overarching reflections - these poems between them deal in varyingly-great depth and breadth such topics as death, love, eternity, birth, sex, the meaning of life, disgust, the nature of consciousness, the transience of identity and experience, aesthetic value, transcendent and spiritual insights, the decay of religion, state oppression and violence, industry, consumerism and alienation, writing and the creative spirit, and probably dozens of other things that could qualify as topics Allen Ginsberg sheds some sort of poem-opinion-light on through these works.
They're also just extremely enjoyable. I tried reading some of them aloud as I do with poetry that I'm trying to milk maximum enjoyment out of, and would recommend this very highly - the richness of Ginsberg's language and the idiosyncratic nature of his verse make these the kind of poems that play in your ears - they have an eccentricity to them, a lopsided but unstoppable rhythm. A beat, I s'pose. (Hahaha.)
This is the third poetry-book post I've done in April alone. Admittedly I've been on a bit of a binge, as poetry makes great substitute-reading for when you're doing a relatively dull essay with the remainder of your time. Also I started writing poetry back in November (did I mention this on here? I don't know) so am engulfing inspiration left, right, and centre. Whatever. Poetry is awesome - and if you don't believe me having never delved much into it - well, Allen Ginsberg probably isn't the best place to start, but hey, you might love it! "the speeding thought that flies upward with my desire as instantaneous as the universe and faster than light / and leave all other questions unfinished for the moment to turn back to sleep in my dark bed on earth."
Bye.
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