Howl

That poem blew my mind.

 

the title sounds familiar, my boyfriend read it once. who wrote it?

 

Allen Ginsberg
You gotta gotta gotta read it!

 

Howl is incredible. My friend leant it to me one morning before school started... I don't remember a thing I learned that day, all I did was read it.

 

Yea its more a Poetry peice then a book. but yea, probably my favorite Poem. Ginsberg, tho i cant see is my fav poet, but just one behind Robert Frost

 

Howl is amazing and must be read aloud for full impact. One does not howl silently. Another long poem of his I love (even more than Howl) is Kaddish.

 

We read this poem in my Poets, Rebels, and Crazies class at Summer Governor's School. It's so beautiful. I dig that he read it at the San Francisco Be-In. How appropriate. Another good Ginsberg poem is A Supermarket in California. "What thoughts have I of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon."

 

Usually I'm not very into poetry but I thought this one was amazing...I haven't read Kaddish yet but I'm planning on it soon.

 

Have you heard recordings of Ginsberg reading it? There's a whole lot of recordings of him on http://www.archive.org
It totally came alive when I heard him read it. He's got such a beautiful voice for that...

 

The first time I read it, I didn't know what to think.

Still don't. It's a good feeling, man.

 

same here. it was entirely over my head. i had no idea what it was talking about...still dont actually.

 

"Howl" is an amazing piece of work.
It actually inspired me a little when I read it in the ninth grade, I think.
I ended up doing my book report on it

"Journey on the highway across America in tears,
to the door of my cottage in the Western night..."

Ginsberg was a beautiful guy with a beautiful mind :hurray:

 

I remember in my high school english course we had a poetry unit, and this poem was on the list of banned literature, so of course I raced over to the library to read it, and instantly fell in love with it. It makes me feel like I am alive and cynical and hilarious and wise. Maybe that's just me though.

 

This was the poem that triggered my poetry addiction.

 

Same ^^

 

Allen Ginsberg is my favorite poet ever!
I love Howl.
But my favorite by him is 'America' you gotta read it, it's amazing.

 

Did you know HOWL was banned by the FBI???

They seized all the copies and tried to ban the book!!!

 

I am not a huge fan of the whole "far out man i'm a beatnik" thing but I think howl is a brilliant piece of work. Very disturbing and liberating at the same time.

 

One of my favorite line from Howl reads "who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas of jibberish." It's so true of anyone who likes to write. Things will seem brilliant when you first jot them down, and then when you reread them later on they are just awful.

I love Ginsberg because once his words sink in, they hit you like bricks.