Howl and Spirituality
Peter J. Graves word count: 884Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" is a complex and intriguing poem about the divine in the common world. The minor themes of drugs and sexuality work together to illuminate the major 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 holy, even in a world of atom bombs and materialistic America, which Ginsberg considers not to be holy and he refers to as Moloch. As it is stated in Ginsberg's "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 asshole holy! / Everything is Holy! Everybody's holy! Everywhere is holy!" (3-5).Sexuality is a theme that runs throughout the entire poem. It is not an uptight sexuality of the 1950's culture but a liberated one. And this sexual imagery, that mostly takes place in the first part of the poem, constantly refers to spirituality and the divine. The poem reads, "who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and/ screamed with joy, / who blew and were blow
They are not debauched as the common view might see it. Moloch was a deity that the Canaanites sacrificed small children to, and Ginsberg parallels him to the 1950's society, a culture that could build and employ the atom bomb. The things that most people of the time would consider to be depraved, such as homosexuality, are actually divine.
Common topics in this essay:
Holy Everybody's,
Moloch Moloch,
El Mohammedan/,
Footnote Howl,
Solomon Concluding,
Filth Ugliness,
Allen Ginsberg's,
Carl Solomon,
Paradise Alley,
I'm Rockland,
major theme,
theme spirituality,
footnote howl,
major theme spirituality,
poem reads,
spirituality divine,
soul holy,
common view,
poem solomon,
section poem,
moloch moloch,
illuminate major theme,
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Acceptance Essays
