Howl

     I can't say that Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" was my favorite poem we've read thus far, but it did bring up some topics to consider.  In the first section, the mood and feeling I got from the poem was dark, sinful, filthy, and chaotic.  Many of the lines referenced suicide, sickness/disease, crying, drunkenness, and just general chaos.  Section 2 solidified this with Moloch, the Canaanite fire god.  Ginsberg's way of relating American culture and society to Moloch was an interesting consideration, and one that I had never thought of before.  The line, "Moloch! Moloch! Robot apartments! invisible suburbs! skeleton treasuries! blind capitols! demonic industries!" related this sacrificial burning of children to Moloch to Americans and the "American Dream."  Ginsberg gives some of the negative effects of buying into this notion that there is an American Dream to work toward--hopelessness and despair are what he finds on the other side of the search for this dream.  Lines like "Jumped off the roof!" "Down to the river!" and "Into the street!" give us a vision of giving up and suicide.  This is what Ginsberg said the search for the American Dream leads to.  In the last section, one quote in particular caught my attention.  "I'm with you in Rockland / where we hug and kiss in the United States under our bedsheets the / United States that coughs all night and won't let us sleep."  These lines related a child/parent relationship to Americans and the United States.  The United States presents all of these opportunities for Americans to work toward, and then keeps Americans up all night, restless and worrying about this dream.  The desire for something that ends up being hurtful is a tension that Ginsberg presents a lot in "Howl."