Who Is Allen Ginsberg's Poem Howl?

Karl Lucas

Mrs.Cammarata

English three

28 October 2015

Final Copy

Allen Ginsberg was an excellent writer and was a rebel who wrote about touchy and sometimes mess up subjects at the time. During this time he was writhing post world war two. He wrote about many things at the time which was never written about at the time. He was the leading figure of the beat generation, and the counterculture of the 1960s. For example he wrote the poem “Howl” which he first introduced at a gallery in 1955, was about exploration of sexuality, anguish, and social issues, like homosexuality and used really bad words. At the time, such sex tall employed in Howl was hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup. He did not care what people were

He said lots of things that would not have been said at the time and was considered rude and offensive. He said words that even today is being discussed. Ginsberg was an early proponent of freedom for gay people. In 1943, he discovered within himself lots of homosexuality. He expressed this desire openly and graphically in his poetry which cause and outrage in the community. Many people had hate towards the way he wrote because of how graphic he was. When he wrote about things like that he uses great detail and explains it visually. He did not stop with that, he also talked about drugs. He promote the legalization of marijuana. He campaign in his poems and got graphic again with it. Ginsberg will be remember also for his words called September on Jessore Road. He said kind words on the suffering and pain of the victims it was one of the more popular poems he wrote. Ginsberg was a signer of an anti-war manifesto that was called “A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority.” This group resisted agents the draft the USA had during the Vietnam War. In 1968, Ginsberg signed the "Writers and Editors

He admired Castro and many other quasi-Marxist figures from the 20th century. Ginsberg was born June 3, 1926. He was born in Newark New Jersey and grew up near Paterson. This plays a role in his scholarship. As a young boy he began to write letters to the New York Times about political issues like world war two and working rights. This was one of many steps to become what he was. In high school he read Walt Whitman’s that inspired him to teach reading. In the year 1943 he graduated from Eastside high school and he attended Montclair state college for a short amount of time before going to Columbia University. He went on a scholarship from the young men's Hebrew association of Paterson. In the year 1945 Ginsburg joined the merchant marines to get money to continue his education. He ran out of his scholarship money and need a way to make money. This could be why we was antiwar later in his life because he got to see it firsthand. Ginsberg’s Father Louis Ginsberg was a published poet and a high school teacher, and his mother Naomi Livegart got a sickness that was never relay diagnosed. She was also an active member of the Communist Party and took Ginsberg and his brother Eugene to party meetings. In 1950 Kerouac began studying what he