Friday, September 24, 2010

'Howl'


Slate writes up 'Howl' with James Franco:

The poem is Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"—written in 1955, published in '57—and it's probably hard for anyone born long after those years to grasp just what a cataclysmic impact that poem made (or perhaps any poem could make) not just on the literary world but on the broader society and culture.


Even many of those who have never read the whole poem know its white-heat opening lines: "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. …"






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