Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”: Life is a Poem
To Allen Ginsberg and his contemporaries of the Beat Generation, poetry was far more than just a hobby; it was a religion — it was life. This view of poetry can be found by analyzing the diction of one of Ginsberg’s most notable works, “Howl”.
Near the end of the first part of “Howl” there is a particularly striking passage describing those
“who dreamt and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space through images juxtaposed, and trapped the archangel of the soul between 2 visual images and joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and dash of consciousness together jumping with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus/ to recreate the syntax and measure of poor human prose and stand before you speechless and intelligent and shaking with shame, rejected yet confessing out the soul to conform to the rhythm of thought in his naked and endless head” (Ginsberg 67).
Through his diction in this passage, Ginsberg creates 2 motifs: the motif of writing and poetry, and the motif of religion.
Motif 1: Poetry
- Words used such as “images”, “juxtaposition”, “verbs”, “noun”, “dash”, “syntax”, “prose” and “rhythm” create this motif.
- These basic building blocks of writing and poetry are used here to describe the building blocks of human life–human “consciousness”. Ginsberg isn’t just talking about ‘prose’; he is talking about “human prose”. Poetry is a way to “recreate” human nature. Just a few lines down, this is reaffirmed when the speaker talks about “the absolute heart of the poem of life” (Ginsberg 67). Life and poetry are directly compared and equated here. Life is poetry, it is inherent to one’s body–one’s heart. To the beats, Poetry has the power to affect the “Time & Space” of life, much like a god, which brings me to the second motif.
Motif 2: Religion, specifically Christianity
- Words used such as “archangel”, “the soul”, “Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus” (meaning “All-powerful Father, Eternal God”), and “confessing” create the motif of religion, as they are all words associated with Christianity.
- Ginsberg’s diction aims to convey the point that poetry is religious to the Beat generation. This is also reflected by Kerouac stating that “the Beat Generation is basically a religious generation” (Charters 6)
- This alignment of poetry to religion, especially Christian religion, is very meaningful considering “Howl” also contains many references to homosexuality, and the beat community was one welcoming of homosexuals. Giving the people rejected and persecuted under the guise of ‘religion’ their own new religion, and using the language of those who have discriminated against them to describe their own community is very powerful. It makes Ginsberg’s poem a defiant act of nonconformity to traditional Christian beliefs; an act of protest. This motif of religion is developed even further in the third part of this poem when the speaker declares “The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy!” (Ginsberg 70). By using words associated with Christianity, and even more, a word meaning aligned with God and sacredness, the motif of religion is strengthened, as is the defiant attitude towards traditional conservative Christian ideas.
Through diction and speaking the language of poetry and the language of religion, Allen Ginsberg emphasizes the importance of poetry to him and his community and gives readers insight into the Beat Generation.
Ginsberg, Allen. “Howl.” The Portable Beat Reader, edited by Ann Charters, Penguin Books, 1992, pp. 62–70.
“The Best Minds of a Generation.” The Portable Beat Reader, edited by Ann Charters, Penguin Books, 1992, pp. 1–7.
