What living and buried speech is always vibrating here,
             what howls restrain'd by decorum...
             When Allen Ginsberg wrote his poem "Howl" in 1956 there were many reactions. To many it was shocking and profane, involving words and subjects that simply were not spoken about. To others it was a literary breakthrough of modern poetry full of vitality and desire. In a three-hour effort, Ginsberg had created a poem that would stand against everything that the 1950's represented- a poem that would become an unignorable voice of the non-conformist "Beat" movement. Ginsberg's unabashed stance is clear. In "Poetry, Violence, and the Trembling Lambs" he writes:
             Recent history is the record of a vast conspiracy to impose one level of mechanical consciousness of mankind... the suppression of contemplative individuality is nearly complete. The only immediate historical data that we can know and act on are those fed to our senses through the systems of mass communication... America is having a nervous breakdown.
             Because of this, "Howl" received the criticism of the multitudes with accusations of its only substance being mad rantings and drug-induced gibberish. Nevertheless, "Howl" has succeeded not only in changing modern poetry, but also in representing an important voice of non-conformity and self-exploration in America in the Fifties.
             At the publishing of "Howl" shock ran through the literary community like the aftershocks of an earthquake. It was seen as a vile, drug-induced ranting containing profanity, homosexuality, drug and alcohol abuse, and the complete rejection of organized religion and establishment. One critic wrote:
             We have had smoking attacks on the civilization before, ironic or murderous or suicidal. We have not had this particular variety of anguished anathema- hurling in which the poet's revulsion is expressed with the single-minde...