Sunday, June 2, 2019

Spirituality in Howl by Allen Ginsberg Essays -- Papers Poem Poetry

Spirituality in howling by Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsbergs poem Howl is a complex and intriguing poem about the divine in the everyday world. The minor themes of drugs and sexuality work together to illuminate the major(ip) theme of spirituality. The poem reveals through a multitude of sharp images and phrases that everything from drug use to homosexuality to mental illness is set apart, even in a world of atom bombs and materialistic America, which Ginsberg considers not to be beatified and he refers to as Moloch. As it is declared in Ginsbergs Footnote To Howl, The world is holy The soul is holy The skin is holy The nose is/ holy The tongue and cock and hand and *censored* holy / Everything is Holy Everybodys holy Everywhere is holy (3-5). Sexuality is a theme that runs throughout the entire poem. It is not an uptight sexuality of the 1950s culture but a liberated one. And this sexual imagery, that mostly takes place in the first part of the poem, constantly refers t o spirituality and the divine. The poem reads, who let themselves be *censored*ed in the ass by good motorcyclists, and/ screamed with joy, / who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, (91-93). These two images contrast the common view of homosexuality in the 1950s. The sailors are seraphim, and the motorcyclists are saintly. They are not corrupt as the common view might see it. The combination of these images helps to uncover the true theme of the piece. The things that most people of the clock time would consider to be depraved, such as homosexuality, are actually divine. Images of drug-use are other tools that are used in this poem to help illuminate the major theme. Once again, even though the drug -users ate fire in paint... ... machinery Moloch whose blood is running money Moloch whose fingers are ten armies Moloch whose breast is a great white shark dynamo Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone Moloch whose soul i s electricity and banks Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen Moloch whose name is the mind (262-73) Even with all this negativity in the poem, the major theme of spirituality remains. The poem Footnote To Howl sums up the theme of spirituality in Howl. It reads, The bums as holy as the seraphim the madman is as holy as you my/ soul are holy (7-8). Spirituality and the divine run through Howl like veins. They carry the theme throughout the piece and deliver it to the reader. Works CitedGinsberg, Allen. Howl and other Poems urban center Lights Books San Francisco 1956

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