Jacob Argamaso
CULF 1318.10
Dr. Sievers
4 May 2016
Project 2 Annotations
- “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,”
- In the first draft of his poem this word originally was written as “mystical”. However, it was changed because it was seen as a little over the top and too emotional for the tone he was going for with the piece. By changing it to “hysterical” he kept the poem grounded and eased up on the intense metaphorical style he used in earlier drafts. (Ginsberg, Allen, Barry Miles, and Carl Solomon. Howl: Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. Print.)
- “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,”
- These first two lines set the tone for the flow of the poem as someone reads it. The sentences are long and hard to get out of your mouth, which was the intention by Ginsberg. By forcing you out of breath and flustered you reach the irritation that Ginsberg felt at the time of writing this poem towards the world around him, helping you relate to the story and himself as it progresses.
- “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,”
- This line became an almost battle-cry like phrase for The Beats and lit a creative fire under them that was just begging to be lit. Suppressed by Cold War image concerns of the time, this gave them the inspiration to be free and open, and led to a resurgence in The Beats.
- “Angleheaded hipsters burning…”
- Hipsters here in this poem take on a completely different meaning than it does now. At the time of writing, hipsters were those who had an affinity for Jazz and doing drugs, often associated with the group known as The Beat Generations. By preceding it with “angelheaded” Ginsberg associates these “best minds” to angels sent from heaven to help the country.
- “Who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine…”
- One of the first allusions to drug use Ginsberg uses in this poem. Drugs were a large part of not only his life, but as the Beats as well as they felt it helped them gain a new perspective on life and the world that couldn’t be seen without the use of substances, mainly marijuana.
- “Who cowered in unshaven rooms…”
- The imagery here puts the reader in the head of the person this is happening to and makes them empathize with one of the central themes in Howl, which is madness. This hits home for Ginsberg as well due to his experience with mental health and the struggles that came along with it. This is also a reference to Carl Solomon and one of the things he was quoted as doing before his admission into a mental institution.
- “Paradise Alley…”
- Paradise alley refers to Kerouac, a known influence of Ginsberg, and the character he created to live there. According to the book, many of The Beats lived in cheap hotels, much like the one described as Paradise Alley. This line also refers more to the rampant drug use that was going on with The Beats at the time of this writing. (Allen Ginsberg, Barry Miles)
- “With waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls,”
- In anything else, these words would be seen as vulgar and pointless, but by using this kind of language, Ginsberg gets the exact response that he wants from the reader. In a time where image was key for the Unites States (i.e. The Cold War) Ginsberg laid it all out there to wake the reader up and see past the façade placed in front of them.
- “Battery to holy Bronx on Benzedrine…”
- This was a drug used by Beat writers, and Ginsberg to keep them awake and coherent so that they could get a stream of consciousness flow of writing going through their work. Known to stimulate the user and suppress hunger, it kept them locked in so their creativity wouldn’t suffer. (Barry Miles)
- “who wandered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go, and went, leaving no broken hearts,”
- : Referring to The Beats yet again, though this time this is a metaphor for the mindset of these people. Often times The Beats felt so outside of regular American culture, that even if they were to vanish and run away, things would continue as normal.
- “Who thought they were only mad when Baltimore…scattered in fireplace Chicago”
- Here Ginsberg writing brings us from places to place, showing us through words the things he has experienced in these places. By going into great detail the reader gets an emotional connection with these locations, much like Ginsberg had for them.
- “Who distributed Supercommunist pamphlets…”
- At the time this was written the US was entrenched in the Cold War, so what this line does is give an explanation to not only the Anti-War mentality of The Beats, but also them as a counter-culture that marched to a beat of their own drum.
- “Waving genitals and manuscripts”
- By placing these two right next to each other, Ginsberg equates them to one another. This is a graphic metaphor of spreading yourself out to as many people as possible, for without either of those things, who you are and what you believe in, will die.
- “Who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer and sweetheart a package of cigarettes…”
- Again the use of hard language here is used to put a point across to the reader, rather than being there just because he wanted to be. These harsh words show that these “best minds” had harsh lives that didn’t always have an easy path to success. A lot of bad things happened, and often times many of them succumbed to these horrible occurrences.
- “who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas of gibberish,”
- Another allusion to drug use and madness, this time referring to those who were so delirious from either the things they took or their mind, that even the best ideas late at night were worth nothing in the morning.
- “who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue…”
- Placing the words of things that are fatal to humans next to something casual is a metaphor for society killing these people around him. By being oppressed and suppressed they can never reach their full potentials, and when creative people cannot create anything, they are essentially dead.