Book Review: HOWL and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

I have always respected Allen Ginsberg. I have always tried to give the Beats their just due. In a yet unpublished poem that is in my manuscript Whethering: shiir, I say "At least they were unafraid." And they were fearless, bold, or maybe just didn't care. But I never really understood what made them such celebrity icons- until I read the 40th anniversary edition of HOWL and Other Poems printed by City Lights Books in 2001.

The epiphany struck me while reading the introduction included that was written by William Carlos Williams for its original publication in 1956. This one sentence was the key that unlocked the entire Beat movement and especially Ginsberg to my understanding: "He was... mentally much disturbed by the life which he had encountered about him during those first years after the First World War as it was exhibited to him in and about New York City." I knew he (Ginsberg) was born in 1926, the son of a Russian immigrant and a well known poet in New Jersey, but I never considered the affect of shell-shock (which did not exist prior to World War I) and a world gone mad beyond the point of no return on a very young, impressionable, sensitive artist. World War I and its after-effects continue to define very definitely everything that is undertaken in art, science, society, and life down to this day. The world changed completely in 1914 and will never be the same. If anything, conditions earth wide continue to deteriorate.

And that realisation unlocked the poetry of the Beat movement in a way that had been closed to me previously. Immediately following this introduction is"HOWL"itself. It paints a vivid picture of the roaring 1920s and the long poverty of the 1930s. In its lines are shell-shocked and post traumatic syndrome-afflicted ex soldiers who could not readjust to civilian life and the unimaginable horror they had perpetrated, who had returned from the War with total apathy for life and moral values of any kind, who either were no longer mentally capable or didn't care to exercise any kind of restraint or social responsibility. It is a harrowing ride. Unafraid, indeed! As Williams warned in the closing sentence of his introduction: "Hold back the edges of your gowns, Ladies, we are going through h---." Never before "HOWL"did a work of literature, either nonfiction or otherwise, look so unblinkingly at a world society gone absolutely, utterly mad. Never has any work of literature since. While it makes for chilling reading (my adjective is grossly understated here), it is necessary to the honesty that poets are always claiming to be attempting to achieve. Twentieth century literature would be incomplete without it.

The book also contains other poems that strive to express this piece of history, such as "Transcription of Organ Music", "America", and "In the Baggage Room at Greyhound". "An Asphodel" is included, which is widely anthologised.

HOWL and Other Poems was eye-opening for me in the sense of gaining a whole new appreciation for the Beat poets. While I have always viewed Ginsberg and company as fearless and respected them for it (the mental instability of many of them notwithstanding), a greater understanding of the origins and context of the movement have heightened that appreciation considerably.