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

spiritism in pule by Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsbergs poem Howl is a complex and intriguing poem about the divine in the common world. The minor motions of medic consumes and knowledgeableity work together to illuminate the study subject of spiritism. 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 non to be holy and he refers to as Moloch. As it is stated in Ginsbergs Footnote To Howl, The world is holy The soul is holy The skin is holy The nose is/ holy The applauder 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 john by sainted motorcyclists, and/ screamed with joy, / who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, (91-93). These two images air 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 world power see it. The combination of these images seconds to uncover the true theme of the piece. The things that most sight of the time would consider to be depraved, such as homosexuality, are genuinely divine. Images of drug-use are other tools that are used in this poem to help illuminate the major(ip) theme. Once again, even though the drug -users ate fire in paint... ... machinery Moloch whose blood is running money Moloch whose fingers are decennium armies Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo Moloch whose ear is a smoking grave Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone Moloch whos e soul is electricity and banks Moloch whose scantness is the specter of genius Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless total heat 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 daredevil 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 metropolis Lights Books San Francisco 1956