The Obscenity Trial that Started a Revolution, and the Poem that Rocked a Generation. Wider Reading 20: Howl

Comprising 251 lines and nearly 3000 words, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” is truly a poem of epic proportions. Dedicated to his close friend Carl Solomon, Ginsberg recounts the stories of “the best minds of [his] generation”; poets, artists, political radicals, jazz musicians, drug addicts, and psychiatric patients who he encountered throughout the 1940s and 50s.

Throughout the poem, Ginsberg explores many aspects of an identity struggle, primarily that of homosexuals with the restrictive society of the 1950s. As a dedicated gay rights activist, Ginsberg was very concerned about the effect of closet homosexuality on those he knew. The individuals within the poem reflect this, and appear to seek escapism in drugs and illicit sexual activity.

The language is candid and graphic as the poet describes the scrapes and homosexual encounters experienced by those around him. So graphic, in fact, that the first public reading of his poem earned him an obscenity trial for his troubles. This was well-publicized. The judge ruled in favour of Ginsberg, however, stating that the poem was “of redeeming social importance,” and it went on to be one of the most widely read poems of the century, translated into more than twenty-two languages. Ginsberg went on to be one of the most influential individuals in the Beat generation of the 1950s.

Howl - Identity Quotations