#5

Madness is a key element and theme of the poem “Howl by Allen Ginsberg. He starts of his poem by saying “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked”. Ginsberg is clearly talking about madness driving people past the standards, maybe the standards set by society. Throughout the poem he discusses different events happening causing chaos throughout America. He describes a raw anger, one that is passionate and strong. Not just a small little outburst but one that is a force to be reckoned with. I also found it interesting how we was able to include his stay at an asylum as part of his poem. When showing solidarity with his friend, Carl, who is receiving electric shock therapy, he writes “I’m with you in Rockland where the faculties of the skull no longer admit the worms of the senses”. The theme of madness is present there as he pretty much says that the mind is having trouble taking in senses.

Allen Ginsberg uses a lot of symbolism and imagery in “Howl”. When portraying the broken state society finds itself in, he says “who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull, who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burning their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through the wall”. The images described in “Howl” are very vivid. They run freely in your mind as they portray a destroyed society in a very frightening way.