Howling against the Machine

Picture a lone wolf on a mountain peak at dawn's break with a few Fading Stars applauding the howling creature. Alone, yet in time and space. Crying out to whomever will listen. A soul-piercing howl that continues.

"Howl" is Allen Ginsberg as "Wolf on a Mountaintop." It is a celebration of his life as well as the lives of his contemporaries whose lifestyles were non-conventional and controversial. It is a poem written to be read aloud; Ginsberg uses base words such as "who," "Moloch," and "I'm with you in Rockland" repetitively which provide cohesiveness, rhythm, and style to "Howl." The first section is a lengthy assertion of a life that has traveled many places, with many people, in altered states of consciousness - exalting heterosexual and homosexual experiences with a frankness that was considered by some obscene. The second and third section name the enemy and provide insight into madness.

Ginsberg gives voice to those "best minds of my generation" as he profusely elaborates on their collective experiences as they traveled all over the world, seeking transcendence spiritually and via illegal drugs, all the while suffering from the oppression of life. Ginsberg is painstaking in his deliberate effusion of strings of words depicting horrific injustices, disturbing existences, and struggles that pull at the nerves of the audience as they try to grasp the magnitude of aversion expressed by the speaker. In this section it is the WHO that Ginsberg is focused on; the majority of the stanzas begin with "who." He also details "where" with so many differing places listed. This sets up the narrative and tone of the poem.

Ginsberg wrote the third section after the first, and then followed with the second stanza. Consider how smooth the transition is from the end of section one to the salutation: "Carl Solomon!" Here he expounds on madness which he claims in the opening line of the poem destroyed the best minds of his generation. Ginsberg continues to live at Rockland even though now it is only in his mind. Solomon is the vehicle/machine/device that allows this possibility for Ginsberg while maintaining some form of respectability while he lives in San Francisco. Ginsberg longs for the freedom the mental institution provided for total unrestricted expression of madness without judgement. His descriptions of Solomon are likely autobiographical (some of these like playing the piano are documented as Ginsberg's actions) and exaggerated. The expressions of section three are his definitions of madness which has claimed victims in Ginsberg's life from childhood until his late twenties, not excluding himself. It could be said that Ginsberg exalts the condition of madness here.

In section two Ginsberg names the enemy: Moloch. Moloch is responsible for all he deems wrong for society, for his generation, for his country. Moloch as capitalism, as sacrifice, as machine, as industrialism, as government, as heartless judge of man: Moloch is the epitome of evil. Why is this necessary for the poem? As a poet Ginsberg must name the demon that haunts him or else his poetry fails. By naming Moloch the killer of souls, imagination, and generations, Ginsberg assumes power over it. His revelation to society will raise their awareness and give them an opportunity to save themselves. Therefore, in section three Ginsberg gives the anticipation of freedom to the lost. It is the lost whom he writes about: the rest have a Savior.