Howl part 1

Summary

Part 1

The first part of "Howl" is an expression of rage at the conditions the speaker's (ostensibly, Ginsberg's) friends and peers
have to endure because society doesn't appreciate, ignores, or openly mocks their art. The speaker describes their descent
into madness, their poverty, and the tenements and "cold-water flats" in which they live, if they can find shelter at all. He
also describes what happens when they can't find anywhere to go, ending up under bridges, living in boxes, and hiding out
in boxcars at the railroad yard.

The speaker relates stories of his friends' search for joy and transcendence despite their status as outsiders. He tells of the
drug trips they experience, using a variety of drugs, as well as their sexual experiences and their spiritual connection to
jazz music. Also included are graphic descriptions of sex acts throughout this section as well as a travelogue, relating the
poet's worldwide search for a visionary experience and a deeper connection with universal forces. By the end of the
section, the speaker addresses American writer Carl Solomon, for whom Ginsberg wrote the poem, letting Carl know that
he is in exactly the same position, not safe, because he writes and acts directly from his soul with no filter. (Ginsberg and
Solomon met in 1949 when they were both patients at the Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric Institute.)

Once Again summary type something

Howl appears to be a sprawling, disorganized poem. But it's not. It consists of three sections. Each of these sections is a
prolonged "riff" on a single subject. You could even think of the poem as three enormous run-on sentences. The first
section is by far the longest.

In the first line of the first section, the speaker tells us that he has been a witness to the destruction of "the best minds" of
his generation. The rest of the section is a detailed description of these people – specifically, who they were and what they
did. He doesn't tell us what destroyed them quite yet, though we get plenty of hints. Most lines begin with the word "who"
followed by a verb. These are people "who did this, who did that," etc. We quickly learn that these "best minds" were not
doctors, lawyers, and scientists. They were not people whom most middle-class folks in the 1950s would have identified
with the best America had to offer. And that's exactly Ginsberg's point. According to the speaker, they are drug users,
drop outs, world travelers, bums, musicians, political dissidents, and, yes, poets.

Analysis

The Language of the Mind

Ginsberg connects phrases with no punctuation to imitate the way thoughts come into his mind, and he doesn't filter them
or make them less intense for anyone. Ginsberg's language is in direct opposition to the "leaden verse" of the poets whose
work is lauded by scholars. He uses this street-level language and strong imagery to open the eyes of readers to the
despair his friends suffer as a result of their ardent search for love, understanding, and a spiritually expansive state of
being.

The graphic sexual language in the poem, rather than being obscene, is an unflinching look at the role that sex plays in
people's lives. For Ginsberg, the urge to connect with another human being in an intimate way is natural and joyful, and it
does not need to be described with euphemisms. Ginsberg writes about sex with the words he would use in conversation,
with himself or with others, to describe his own sexual desires and those of his friends.

The third section of the poem is a cry out to Carl Solomon, Ginsberg's beloved friend and fellow writer who is in a
psychiatric hospital. Ginsberg imagines Carl's suffering as similar to his own when he himself was hospitalized at the
same time as Carl years before. The speaker's exclamation of Carl Solomon's name opens the section with an earnest
desire to be there for his friend. The section also repeats the refrain "I'm with you in Rockland" as if in prayer. Ginsberg
wants Carl to realize that he is not alone. Every other phrase beginning with the word where describes the descent into
madness as well as the ways in which the speaker is like Carl or has a close understanding of what he is going through.

The Repression of a Generation

Ginsberg is furious that his country is destroying his friends and peers by either mocking them and calling them crazy or
by ignoring them and depriving them of a decent living. Ginsberg's own actions have led him to be an object of disgust by
people who don't understand him, and he uses an angry tone, serving as the voice of his generation, a voice straight from
the soul.

Ginsberg also sees both the expansion of the soul and the destruction of the body and mind caused by the drugs he and his
friends use to experience visions. The Beat poets and writers are seen as ratty-looking, drug-addled, weird rejects of
society by the mainstream public. Ginsberg brings to light the level of suffering caused by this rejection, describing the
gritty, filthy places his friends end up living in, naked and starving. He also lists all of the ways in which hospitals have
tried to muffle the voices of these people. Rather than deal with their mental illness in a compassionate way, society
prefers to silence them and keep them hidden from the public.

Ginsberg references places he has traveled to across America and around the world, where he finds the same lack of
acceptance of Beat literature and art. He ends up coming back to his own country to continue to expose the shame,
rejection, and loneliness experienced by his peers. He lifts the outcasts of society up, reincarnated to bring "the absolute
heart of the poem" to people who are so blinded to beauty they can do nothing but try to destroy it.

In the second section of the poem, Ginsberg uses the god Moloch as a metaphor for the destructiveness of modern society.
Moloch represses humanity through capitalism, greed, wealth, war, and the destruction of nature. Moloch's actions
sacrifice the well-being of children, the elderly, and other vulnerable people who live in poverty, keeping them down and
relegating them to the outskirts of society. Creativity, spiritual exploration, and freedom of expression have been also
been sacrificed for the almighty dollar. Ginsberg shows, however, through the use of first person in the end of this section,
that people who are suffering have to realize how they play a part in that suffering. They have accepted the way American
society works, and in doing so have sacrificed their own souls.

Ginsberg's devotion to communism and his support of marginalized communities appears through his friends' attempts to
reveal heaven on earth, "which exists and is everywhere about us!" The second section of the poem begins with a question
about who has destroyed the human imagination and answers it with exclamatory statements about all of the terrible
things Moloch represents. From buildings to armies, oil to banks, Moloch has control over the world, and the people on
the street are the ones to suffer. The constant repetition of Moloch's name wavers between accusation and an almost
worshipful admission that Moloch has won over most of the world.

Rising from the Ashes

Ginsberg views his fellow artists and writers as angelic and intelligent in contrast to the society that chooses to ignore and
oppress them rather than support and love them. Ginsberg uses religious imagery to show readers that the true spiritual
experience is being lived by the people who are suffering. In the first section of the poem, the speaker describes the
glimmers of joy that drug trips and sexual experiences bring, but in the third section, he delves deeper into the potential
for spiritual release to lift up people who are suffering. He moves from the terror of shock treatments and the resulting
dullness of the mind to the ways in which he hopes Carl Solomon will overcome his horrific experience in the hospital.

Ginsberg brings in more religious imagery in the third section, particularly that of heaven and angels, to describe how the
writers and artists are trying to rise above society's repression. He uses the term comrades to describe his friends, a term
used in communist societies to denote cooperation and support of one's fellow human. Ginsberg also uses the words of
war to describe how he and his friends will help those who have been labeled crazy in the beginning of the poem. He
transforms the violence by pairing it with religious language. Just as Ginsberg and his friends search for a spiritual
expansion and a visionary experience to turn suffering into peace and joy, Ginsberg turns bombs into angels who
illuminate the hospital. They tear down the invisible walls that society places around the poor and the mentally ill, freeing
people not just from their underwear (a humorous touch), but from pain and suffering.

Analysis

Lines 1 - 26

"Howl" is partly a reflection on what American culture and society of the 1940's and 50's had done to those that would not
line up in conformity to American culture and politics.  Madness is a central theme.  The militaristic, dominant culture of
the time had "destroyed" this generation, driven them into "madness," and left them vulnerable and "hysterical." (1-
2). This desperation has left them "angry" and in "poverty" and disconnected from the spiritual realities of life (3-5).  But
these people are also scared of the authority that has abused them and left them as outcasts.  This is both a physical
hardship that has left them poor and unable to honestly earn a living because of their political beliefs and artistic calling,
and it is a mental hardship.  Ginsberg describes this as "...listening to the Terror through the wall" (17).

Yet, for as angry and hysterical as these individuals are because of the culture that suppresses them, Ginsberg also
suggests that they also represent a certain kind of salvation for the rest of America, though it is a salvation that has yet to
be achieved.  He calls these individuals "angel headed hipsters" and suggests that they are "burning" for a relationship
with spiritual things, represented by the starry sky (Lines 5-6).  He says that these individuals "bared their brains" to these
spiritual things.  While there was a strong spiritual dimension to almost all of the Beat writings, Ginsberg does not single
out a particular belief system as holding the key to truth.  The "best minds" opened themselves up to "El," which is a name
for God used in the Hebrew Bible by the Jews, and they witnessed "Mohammedan angels" in their hallucination, a nod
towards Islam. 

Lines 12 - 15 put these "best minds" in conflict with the established literary and intellectual culture and they refer to
Ginsberg's own difficulty within these more refined cultures.  Ginsberg talks of how the "best minds" went to the most
distinguished universities, though he notes that they only "passed through," denoting that they did not stay or make any
kind of significant academic or intellectual impact on these institutions.  This is because, Ginsberg insinuates, the artistic
visions that the "best minds" produced would never be accepted by such institutions.  Ginsberg uses the derisive term
"scholars of war" to symbolize how academic culture had ceded their power to the political and military power of the day. 
He then notes how these "best minds" were expelled from their universities for the kinds of work they published. 
Ginsberg himself had much of his earliest work, including a draft of a novel, rejected by professors and administration
who found his subject to be unappealing and not worthy of serious thought.  Allen had a run-in with the President of
Columbia after he wrote an obscene message on his dorm room window, an incident which echoes in the line "Obscene
odes on the windows of the skull..." (14-15). 

The opening of "Howl" also begins by describing the context of these "best minds."  This is an urban context, bustling
cities with frenetic energy.  It must be remembered that the mid-twentieth century marked a turning point in population
and geography in America.  For the first time, more people were living in cities than in rural areas.  Many came because
of the rise of corporate and industrial culture that brought jobs and wealth and created the American middle class, but
these urban areas also fostered vibrant art, music, and literary scenes.  The energy of these movements were what attracted
the Beats to cities like New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.

Ginsberg describes this urban context in a myriad of ways.  He calls them "negro streets," an allusion to the Beat's
fascination with African American culture, especially jazz music.  Much of the Beat's writing, including "Howl", is
modeled on jazz rhythms and expressions.  Ginsberg sees these urban contexts as both environments of freedom but also
as prisons that can entrap the mind and ultimately destroy the individual.  In one minute, the artist can see "angels
staggering on the tenement roofs" (10-11) while on the high of drugs and drunkenness.  The city allows the poet to
contemplate things like jazz, poetry, and art with a community of people that see the world in the same way.  Yet, the city
is also a destructive force full of injustice.  Ginsberg and his friends repeatedly saw instances of such injustice as police
and authorities kept close watch on their activities and used any instance possible to make arrests or charge them with
crimes.  Being unfairly targeted, Ginsberg suggests, is what ultimately drove the Beat poets and artists underground, into a
world of drugs and violence and sex.  These oppressed young men lived in "waking nightmares" of "drugs...alcohol and
cock and endless balls, / incomparable blind streets of shuddering cloud..." (22-24).  It is not these licentious acts of drug
use and homosexuality that themselves destroy these young men, but it is instead the way in which they are forced to hide
and suppress these acts and the way in which they are persecuted for them that ultimately cause this urban context to be a
context of destruction and injustice.

Lines 27-46

Location begins to become an important theme in "Howl."  The poem now starts to move through different locales all
over the United States.  This movement of place is characteristic of Beat literature.  The post World War II generation that
the Beat's were a part of was the first American generation that had the ability to travel widely with relative ease. 
Automobiles had become easily available to middle and lower class families.  Systems of state and national highways
connected distant locales and, later, the interstate system which began being built in the 1950's, would connect the entire
country with high speed roads.  This ability to travel to different places, to see and experience different parts of the
country, and to observe a kind of national life was a central theme to Beat literature.  Though "Howl" is not as interested
in describing America, its people, or its places, the poem is demonstrative of the Beat impulse to move and to travel.

These lines use New York City as the setting for the continued description of the "best minds."  New York was a meeting
place for many of the Beat writers such as Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs.  These figures became central to
connecting other members of the Beat movement from all across the country.  Lines 27 - 31 paint a picture of a Brooklyn,
New York scene.  The scene plays off of the image of idealistic scenes of nature and civilization contrasted with the
psychedelic experiences and harsh living conditions for these "best minds."  "Backyard green tree" is contrasted with
"cemetery dawns;" "storefront boroughs" are contrasted with "teahead (a slang term for a habitual user of marijuana)
joyride neon blinking traffic light;" "sun and moon and tree vibrations" are contrasted with "winter dusks...."  The theme
here is that the New York City of the "best minds" is not the New York City that others might see and experience.

Ginsberg then moves to the Bronx in lines 32-38, another borough of New York City.  Again, contrast is the literary tool
Ginsberg uses here.  It is the idea of domesticity that is contrasted with drug abuse and drinking.  The "best minds" travel
to the Bronx near the Bronx zoo.  They are high on benzedrine and they are confronted with "the noise of wheels and
children...."  This noise of domesticity is not just a symbol of "normal" life; for the "best minds" this example of domestic
life leaves them "mouth-wracked and battered bleak of brain all drained of brilliance...."  Ginsberg suggests that a "best
mind" cannot live such a domestic life and retain their artistic and poetic gifts.  This is a theme that Ginsberg will return
to, incorporating women into the picture, during later lines.  Ginsberg then sees the "best minds" return to a more natural
habitat: a Bickford's (a popular short order diner in New York during the mid-twentieth century) and an empty Fugazzi's
(a bar) where they drink stale beer and listen to "the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox...;" an allusion to the
hydrogen bomb and nuclear war, a stark reality at the end of World War II. This is a reference to Ginsberg’s own life
when, poor and alone in New York City, he took a job at a Bickford’s sweeping the floors.

The tour of New York continues. In lines 39-40, Ginsberg writes that the “best minds” “talked continuously seventy hours
from park to pad to bar to Bellevue / to museum to the Brooklyn Bridge.” Talking “continuously seventy hours” is a
reference to the Beat’s prolific use of Benzedrine, a stimulant drug easily available in over the counter cold remedies. The
drug was used widely by the Beats to help them keep the stream of consciousness style, a frenetic pace of words and
thoughts, that is characteristic of their writing. Ginsberg wrote a great deal of his poetry while on Benzedrine, including
“Kaddish,” which Ginsberg wrote in a prolific forty hour session. It was this drug that drove the random metaphysical
conversations that are woven throughout “Howl.” But the drug also caused erratic behavior and sometimes personal
injury. Ginsberg describes these harsh effects of the drug in lines 43 and 44: “...screaming vomiting whispering... /
...eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars....”

Lines 27-46

Location begins to become an important theme in "Howl."  The poem now starts to move through different locales all
over the United States.  This movement of place is characteristic of Beat literature.  The post World War II generation that
the Beat's were a part of was the first American generation that had the ability to travel widely with relative ease. 
Automobiles had become easily available to middle and lower class families.  Systems of state and national highways
connected distant locales and, later, the interstate system which began being built in the 1950's, would connect the entire
country with high speed roads.  This ability to travel to different places, to see and experience different parts of the
country, and to observe a kind of national life was a central theme to Beat literature.  Though "Howl" is not as interested
in describing America, its people, or its places, the poem is demonstrative of the Beat impulse to move and to travel.

These lines use New York City as the setting for the continued description of the "best minds."  New York was a meeting
place for many of the Beat writers such as Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Burroughs.  These figures became central to
connecting other members of the Beat movement from all across the country.  Lines 27 - 31 paint a picture of a Brooklyn,
New York scene.  The scene plays off of the image of idealistic scenes of nature and civilization contrasted with the
psychedelic experiences and harsh living conditions for these "best minds."  "Backyard green tree" is contrasted with
"cemetary dawns;" "storefront boroughs" are contrasted with "teahead (a slang term for a habitual user of marijuana)
joyride neon blinking traffic light;" "sun and moon and tree vibrations" are contrasted with "winter dusks...."  The theme
here is that the New York City of the "best minds" is not the New York City that others might see and experience.

Ginsberg then moves to the Bronx in lines 32-38, another borough of New York City.  Again, contrast is the literary tool
Ginsberg uses here.  It is the idea of domesticity that is contrasted with drug abuse and drinking.  The "best minds" travel
to the Bronx near the Bronx zoo.  They are high on benzedrine and they are confronted with "the noise of wheels and
children...."  This noise of domesticity is not just a symbol of "normal" life; for the "best minds" this example of domestic
life leaves them "mouth-wracked and battered bleak of brain all drained of brilliance...."  Ginsberg suggests that a "best
mind" cannot live such a domestic life and retain their artistic and poetic gifts.  This is a theme that Ginsberg will return
to, incorporating women into the picture, during later lines.  Ginsberg then sees the "best minds" return to a more natural
habitat: a Bickford's (a popular short order diner in New York during the mid-twentieth century) and an empty Fugazzi's
(a bar) where they drink stale beer and listen to "the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox...;" an allusion to the
hydrogen bomb and nuclear war, a stark reality at the end of World War II. This is a reference to Ginsberg’s own life
when, poor and alone in New York City, he took a job at a Bickford’s sweeping the floors.

The tour of New York continues. In lines 39-40, Ginsberg writes that the “best minds” “talked continuously seventy hours
from park to pad to bar to Bellevue / to museum to the Brooklyn Bridge.” Talking “continuously seventy hours” is a
reference to the Beat’s prolific use of Benzedrine, a stimulant drug easily available in over the counter cold remedies. The
drug was used widely by the Beats to help them keep the stream of consciousness style, a frenetic pace of words and
thoughts, that is characteristic of their writing. Ginsberg wrote a great deal of his poetry while on Benzedrine, including
“Kaddish,” which Ginsberg wrote in a prolific forty hour session. It was this drug that drove the random metaphysical
conversations that are woven throughout “Howl.” But the drug also caused erratic behavior and sometimes personal
injury. Ginsberg describes these harsh effects of the drug in lines 43 and 44: “...screaming vomiting whispering... /
...eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars....”

Lines 47-76

Ginsberg then begins to document the travel of the “best minds.” These travel narratives are best exemplified in Jack
Kerouac’s On the Road, the story of Kerouac and Neal Cassady’s cross country trips from New York to San Francisco to
Mexico City. Ginsberg adds on to this travel mythology by incorporating the stories of other Beat writers and artists.
These lines in the poem are based on the travels and stories many of Ginsberg’s friends and acquaintances. They are
meant not to document any one example of Beat life but instead are meant to build a tapestry of experience while on the
road. Together, Ginsberg is saying, these represent the kind of Beatnik life that was the norm for these “best minds.”

The first location of travel is New Jersey, not too far away from Ginsberg’s home base of New York City and his original
home state. Ginsberg describes New Jersey as “nowhere Zen” (47) and “ambiguous” (48) and “bleak” (50), meaning that
he saw nothing special in the place, though he would later memorialize his family’s opportunity in New Jersey in his
poem “Kaddish.” Being in New Jersey, Ginsberg writes, only makes him pine for the far off places that his friends have
left for. Ginsberg seems both awed and jealous that these persons have been able to leave their home with no strings or
guilt, “leaving no broken hearts....” (52). They have left in many ways, and Ginsberg writes that some have left as stow
aways on freight trains bound for the West. Line 53 emulates the rhythm of these trains, as if his own verse is making the
click clack sound of trains moving down tracks: “in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow....”

While many of the “best minds” stayed within the bounds of American soil, their thoughts and dreams were often in far
off places. Ginsberg is especially eager to visit the Far East. He calls his eagerness “Eastern sweats....” (49). For the Beats
there was a fascination with Eastern religion, philosophy, and mystical thought. Ginsberg writes that the “best minds”
studied “Plotinus Poe St. John of the Cross telepathy and bop kabbalah....” (55). These figures represent some of the best
minds and best ideas from previous periods of history and they fascinated Ginsberg and other Beat writers. Plotinus was
an ancient Greek philosopher who was considered the father of neoplatonism, a school of philosophy that believed in a
singular transcendent being. Poe referes to Edgar Allen Poe, a poet and writer from the 19th century. Though Poe, chiefly
known for his horror fiction and poetry, might seem out of place in this list of great minds, Ginsberg had a particular
fascination with the writer. Poe was receiving renewed interest during the middle of the twentieth century with the
publication of his complete works. Ginsberg saw Poe as a unique American mind. Poe wrote about many of the same
themes that Ginsberg himself engaged: violence, political turmoil, and sexuality. For Ginsberg, Poe was a “best mind”
before his time. He was an artist that Ginsberg felt would have fit very well into the Beatnik lifestyle of the twentieth
century.

Ginsberg also notes the influence of St. John of the Cross, a Saint from the middle ages who was chiefly known for his
mystical visions. Finally, Ginsberg cites telepathy, a pseudo-science, and “bop kabbalah,” which he here means to be a
kind of pop culture incarnation of the Jewish mystical tradition.

Ginsberg then continues to document the travels of the “best minds.” They searched for “visionary indian angels” in Idaho
(57); they were “mad” in Baltimore when they glimpsed the gleaming city (59); they hung around with “Chinamen” and
other foreigners in Oklahoma (61); and they roamed the streets of Houston “seeking jazz or sex of / soup....” (63-64).
These were the Beat’s American travels, yet Ginsberg says that this was not enough for the “best minds.” They took the
time to “converse about America / and Eternity...” but Ginsberg calls this a “hopeless task....” Their hopelessness would
send them to farther away places like Africa, a reference to William S. Burrough’s exile to Tangiers, Morocco (64-65).
Their foreign travels also took them Mexico, Ginsberg tell us in line 66, a reference to his own travels to that country.
Ginsberg then compares these “best minds” to a volcano, writing that their path from American to Mexico left behind
nothing but “the lava and ash of poetry....” (67).

The poem then returns to the United States, just as Ginsberg did after his travels to Mexico. This time the setting is the
West Coast. Ginsberg says that the “best minds” “reappeared” and came under scrutiny of the FBI because of their
alternative lifestyle and political views. They drew the attention of the authorities because they protested the “narcotic
tobacco haze / of Capitalism” and “distributed Supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square...” (74). Ginsberg both
defends their protests and acknowledges the enormity of the things they were protesting. He notes that the “sirens of Los
Alamos wailed them down...” (75) a reference to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the lab which was
home to the “Manhattan Project,” the series of research and experiments that produced the atomic bomb. He also says that
there was a wail “down Wall,” (76) a reference with double meaning, pointing towards the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the
site of the remaining wall of the destroyed Jewish Temple where Jews pray in grief for the restoration of Israel, and it is a
reference to Wall Street, the symbol and home of American capitalism.

Section I, Dedication – Line 5

Dedication

For Carl Solomon

 The poem is dedicated to Carl Solomon, a man whom Ginsberg met and became close friends with during the
eight months he spent at the Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric Institute, from 1949-1950.
  Ginsberg never intended Howl to become a mainstream success, so the poem is filled with personal references
that only his friends and acquaintances would have known.

 Ginsberg called Solomon "an intuitive Bronx Dadaist and prose-poet" (source).

Line 1

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,

 The speaker says he has seen the "best minds of [his] generation" destroyed by insanity. If you know the
background of the poem's dedication to Carl Solomon (which you now know), you might think that Solomon is
one of these "best minds."

 Above all, the word "minds" suggests intelligence. We're curious as to what made these people so smart. Did they
do research in a laboratory to cure diseases, or discover complicated new laws of physics, or work in one of the
country's top law firms? We'll see…

 The "best minds of my generation" sounds like great students with top SAT scores and lots of ambition. At least
that's what we might expect from reading only this first line.

 It's surprising that these "best minds" would succumb to "madness." Even more surprising are the three words,
"starving hysterical naked," which make them sound frighteningly and seriously ill.

 These words are not separated by commas, which causes you to read them very fast, almost like one word:
"starvinghystericalnaked." Ginsberg has said that each line of the poem should be read in a single breath, and the
poem is full of disjointed phrases and run-on sentences that are designed, 1) to mimic the insane chatter of the
"best minds" and 2) leave the reader breath-less (source).

 The syntax (or the order words and phrases) in Howl might remind you of a fast-paced action movie where the
camera angle changes every three seconds. There is no stable center to this poem. It constantly interrupts itself.

Line 2

dragging themselves through the n**** streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,

 For simplicity's sake, we're generally going to refer to the "best minds" as "they" from here on. But don't forget
that the word "who" in these section always refers to this group of people.

 They obviously have trouble moving, because they have to "drag" themselves through the streets, as if their
bodies were made of lead.

 "N****" is an outdated term used to describe African-Americans, and "n**** streets" refers to the part of the city
where African-Americas live. The phrase could also could refer to the darkness of the streets, which stands in
contrast to the light of "dawn."

 Although most of the Beat writers were white, they identified with predominantly African-American culture, and
jazz in particular. They lived in the areas where the rent was least expensive, which was often in African-
American neighborhoods.

 The speaker says that the best minds are searching for an "angry fix," or drugs in an attempt to take the edge off
their anger and frustration.

Line 3

angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

 The speaker views the "hipsters" as religious figures who resemble angels.
  In the 1940s and 50s, the word "hip" was associated with an interest in jazz and drug use.

 These hipsters are trying to rediscover religious feeling – "the ancient heavenly connection" – in the modern age.

 A "dynamo" is like an electric generator, so it's like Ginsberg is comparing the starry sky to a power plant.

 The "religion" of the hipsters seems to be more about sheer energy and an immediate connection to a higher
power than about rules and traditional kinds of organized prayer.

Line 4

who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats
floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,

 They are poor and wear "tattered clothing."

 They are "high" on drugs and their eyes are "hollow" from drug use and lack of sleep.

 They smoked cigarettes and probably also marijuana in small apartments ("flats") that lacked hot water.

 They thought about jazz and imagined they were floating over the city, looking down on the buildings below.

 The nighttime darkness had a religious or "supernatural" quality.

 So far we have learned that the speaker's "best minds" include habitual drug users.

 Also, we have learned that the speaker likes to use religious language in unconventional ways.

Line 5

who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,

 "El" is one of the Hebrew names for God. It's also the abbreviation for "Elevated Train," particularly the one in
Chicago.

 They "bared their brains" like other people might bear their souls, and they did it while standing under a train.

 You might ask yourself: what kinds of people hang out under trains?

 Apparently, "the best of minds" didn't limit themselves to one particular religion, because they also saw the angels
of Islam, the religion of the prophet Mohammed. They saw these angels on the roof of very poor and shabby
apartment complexes.

Section I, Lines 6-10

Line 6

who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the
scholars of war,

 They did go to school. But it sounds like they spent much of their time "hallucinating."

 The reference to "Arkansas," a southern state with a large rural population, contrasts with the big-city vibe we've
gotten so far. They were just as interested in small-town America as they are in the city.

 "Blake" refers to William Blake, the late 18th/early 19th century English poet and painter who specialized in
prophecies and visions. We can't even begin to describe how wild his writing is – you'll have to check it out for
yourself. See, e.g., "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" in Shmoop Poetry.
  Not surprisingly, Blake was one of Ginsberg's favorite all-time poets. In fact, Ginsberg had a vision in which
Blake came and read his own poetry aloud (Source).

 The best minds are hanging out in the university along with "the scholars of war," whom you could think of –from
Ginsberg's perspective – as the "worst minds."

 Ginsberg believed that universities were responsible for perpetuating warfare by inventing new weapons,
supporting conservative ideas about the necessity of military power, and by generally contributing to the capitalist
system that he hated. Despite these strong opinions about universities, Ginsberg didn't dislike all his teachers at
Columbia. His favorite course was a seminar taught by the famous literary critic Lionel Trilling (Source).

Line 7

who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,

 They were kicked out of school ("the academies") for being "crazy" and for writing poems filled with obscenities.

 They published these "odes" on "the windows of the skull," which we take to mean eyes.

 This line also makes direct reference to Ginsberg's life. He was expelled from Columbia for writing "obscenities"
on the window of his dorm room (Source). He later returned to finish college, but the experience left him with
bad feelings toward academia.

Line 8

who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burning their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through
the wall,

 In addition to all their other psychological problems, they were extremely paranoid. They were cowering from
"the Terror."

 Everything is mixed up, and it's the room, not the person in it, that was "unshaven." Just go with it.

 They were burning their money in the trashcan as though they wouldn't need it anymore. Which you probably
wouldn't if you knew that something called the "Terror" was on the other side of the wall.

Line 9

who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York,

 A lot of "hipsters" grew long beards, which clashed with the respectable clean-shaven-and-crew-cut look of the
1950s. In the 1960s, as you probably know, long hair became definitely associated with the hippie sub-culture,
which grew out of the Beat movement.

 Back to "the best of minds": they tried to smuggle marijuana from Mexico, where it was cheap and plentiful, to
America through the border at Laredo, Texas. They planned to bring it to New York to sell to friends, but they
"got busted."

Line 10

who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night

 It's hard to know just how many references to drugs this poem contains unless you have an encyclopedic
knowledge of every slang term for drugs used in the 1950s. It's possible that "ate fire" is one such reference to
drugs. The point seems to be that they put very unhealthy substances into their bodies, like "fire" and "turpentine."
  The speaker may be exaggerating here, as turpentine in particular is a toxic substance that can be used to dissolve
paint.

 We wish we could tell you exactly what's going on, but you'll just have to go with the loose connections the poem
offers.

 Paradise Alley was a slum in New York, and you can bet that the hotels there were cheap and run-down.

 In Dante's Divine Comedy, "Purgatory" was a mountain that stood between heaven and hell. People in Purgatory
were technically saved, and therefore destined for Heaven, but they had a lot of problems to work out first.

 The people in Dante's Purgatory keep repeating the same pattern of mistakes over and over again, be it envy or
lust. Similarly, the people in Howl "purgatory" their chests by repeatedly putting bad things into them, like drugs
and other stuff that we'll learn about in the next line.

Section I, Lines 11-15

Line 11

with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls,

 Here's the list of items that they "purgatoried" their torsos with repeatedly.

 The first item on the list, "dreams," doesn't sound so bad.

 Other items include drugs, booze, "waking nightmares," and male genitals.

 Ginsberg was openly gay, and this poem has a lot of references to homosexuality. The gay men in this poem
generally do not seem to be involved in monogamous relationships with one other person (thus the comment
about "endless balls"). Keep in mind that this poem was written before the HIV epidemic.

Line 12

incomparable blind; streets of shuddering cloud and in the mind leaping toward poles of Canada & Paterson,
illuminating all the motionless world of Time between,

 Here comes a vision. The speaker imagines a street consisting of storm clouds inside the brain. A "blind" street,
by the way, can mean a dead-end.

 The clouds send out bolts of lightning toward Canada and Paterson, New Jersey, where Ginsberg grew up as a
kid. Maybe the street is a metaphor for the mental connection that exists in the speaker's mind between these two
separate places.

 In addition to spanning different geographic spaces, this connection also spans "Time," which becomes a
"motionless world." Wouldn't it be great if you could freeze time? In Ginsberg's world you can, using only your
thoughts, which travel as fast as lightning.

Line 13

Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, storefront boroughs
of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light, sun and moon and tree vibrations in the roaring winter dusks of Brooklyn,
ashcan rantings and kind king light of mind,

 Lines 12-13 seem to continue the list of things with which "the greatest of minds" "purgatoried their torsos,"
though the items on the list seem to have little to do with one another, aside from their frequent connection to
drug use. In this line, the speaker cites a bunch of different places where they have consumed drugs of various
kinds.
  "Peyote" is a plant that makes people hallucinate and have visions. Native American communities use peyote as
part of their religious rituals, but it has also been used recreationally, though many Beat writers might say that
they were attempting to enter a spiritual state (and not just using peyote for recreation).

 In a nutshell, they have been high everywhere you could imagine: in cemeteries, on rooftops, in the street, in
Brooklyn.

 The drugs cause a sensation of "light" in the mind, both in terms of illumination and of a lack of weight.

Line 14

who chained themselves to subways for the endless ride from Battery to holy Bronx on benzedrine until the noise of
wheels and children brought them down shuddering mouth-wracked and battered bleak of brain all drained of brilliance
in the drear light of Zoo,

 While high on Benzedrine, they took the subway from "Battery" in Lower Manhattan to "holy Bronx," another
borough in New York.

 Ginsberg experimented with Benzedrine prior to writing this poem. It's a stimulant that causes jitters and a mild
feeling of euphoria.

 They rode the subway at night until it reached the Bronx Zoo, at which point they were awakened by the noise of
people getting on and off the train. They were very groggy by the end of the ride.

Line 15

who sank all night in submarine light of Bickford's floated out and sat through the stale beer afternoon in desolate
Fugazzi's, listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox,

 Bickford's was a chain of all-night diners in New York City, and Fugazzi's sounds like a dive bar where a person
can pass a lazy afternoon drinking "stale beer." In other words, they spend a lot of time hanging out in cheap bars
and restaurants.

 It should be clear by now that one of Ginsberg's poetic techniques is to combine words that don't seem related to
each other. "Hydrogen jukebox" is a good example.

 The word "hydrogen" is suggestive of the Hydrogen Bomb, which was first tested in the early 1950s. No wonder
the jukebox sounds like "the crack of doom."

 Howl is filled with such vague, unspecified associations. As a reader, you should feel free to interpret them
multiple ways.

Section I, Lines 16-20

Line 16

who talked continuously seventy hours from park to pad to bar to Bellevue to museum to the Brooklyn Bridge,

 Wow, they can talk for seventy hours straight!

 They jump between very different locations, such as from Bellevue, a famous mental hospital, straight to a
"museum."

Line 17

lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills off Empire State out
of the moon,
  They are still talking. The speaker compares them to a military "battalion of platonic conversationalists," which
means they talked a lot about Big Ideas. Plato was the Ancient Greek philosopher who came up with the theory of
Ideas.

 They also have some pretty impressive gymnastics skills. They jumped off everything from fire escapes to the
Empire State Building. This, obviously, is an exaggeration.

Line 18

yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of
hospitals and jails and wars,

 Still talking, talking, talking.

 They discussed everything from their cherished memories to the pain they suffered in "hospitals and jails and
wars." These are people who have seen some rough times.

 They also vomited between all the talking, screaming, and whispering. Or, maybe by "vomiting" Ginsberg means
spewing out more words. The next line suggests this might be the case.

Line 19

whole intellects disgorged in total recall for seven days and nights with brilliant eyes, meat for the Synagogue cast on the
pavement,

 By total recall the speaker means that they have access to all their memories, which they "disgorged," or vomited
out in conversation for a week straight.

Line 20

who vanished into nowhere Zen New Jersey leaving a trail of ambiguous picture postcards of Atlantic City Hall,

 Now the speaker tells us that these people sometimes vanish entirely. They skipped town, and no one knows
where they have gone. Three of the likeliest options are: 1) nowhere, 2) Zen, a Buddhist state of enlightenment,
and 3) New Jersey.

 They sent postcards from Atlantic City, New Jersey, which would seem to suggest option 3. But maybe those
three names all stand for the same place. (Jersey is Zen?)

Section I, Lines 21-25

Line 21

suffering Eastern sweats and Tangerian bone-grindings and migraines of China under junk-withdrawal in Newark's bleak
furnished room,

 We're still trying to figure out where these folks went.

 Maybe they have gone East, that is, to Asia. Or perhaps Tangiers, in northern Morocco.

 Or maybe just Newark, New Jersey, where they suffer from "junk-withdrawal," a painful condition caused by
suddenly stopping drug use. Once again, the New Jersey option seems most likely, though Ginsberg wants to
suggest that the physical ailments suffered by people who quit using drugs are a form of world travel.

Line 22

who wandered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go, and went, leaving no broken
hearts,
  They seem to have a lot of free time on their hands. Here they wandered around a railroad yard and then left
without anyone missing them that much.

Line 23

who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow toward lonesome farms in grandfather night,

 The "best minds" also include homeless people who travel illegally on freight trains.

 They smoked in several of the train's boxcars as they travel out to the countryside.

 They may or may not have any family remaining, but the night is like their "grandfather."

Line 24

who studied Plotinus Poe St. John of the Cross telepathy and bop kabbalah because the cosmos instinctively vibrated at
their feet in Kansas,

 In some ways, these "minds" are conventionally smart. They have studied Plotinus, a philosopher who lived in the
time of the Roman Empire, also Edgar Allan Poe, the 19th century American writer, and St. John of the Cross, a
religious mystic.

 In addition to these scholarly topics, their studies include "telepathy," or mind-reading, and "bop kabbalah,"
which Ginsberg just made up out of the blue by combining "bop," meaning jazz, and "kabbalah," a school of
Jewish mysticism.

 Why did they study these things? Because "the cosmos instinctively vibrated at their feet in Kansas."

 The overall point is that they tend to be interested in dense philosophy and various forms of religious mysticism.
A "mystic" is someone who hopes to achieve revelations into the ultimate nature of things.

Line 25

who loned it through the streets of Idaho seeking visionary indian angels who were visionary indian angels,

 They traveled alone through towns in Idaho looking for "visionary Indian angels," or Native Americans with
sacred powers.

 They may or may not have been "visionary Indian angels" themselves.

Section I, Lines 26-30

Line 26

who thought they were only mad when Baltimore gleamed in supernatural ecstasy,

 Even after all this drinking of turpentine, jumping off buildings, and talking for seventy hours straight, they didn't
realize they were "mad" (or insane) until they saw the gleaming lights of the city of Baltimore.

Line 27

who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Oklahoma on the impulse of winter midnight street light smalltown rain,

 They got into a limousine with a Chinese man in Oklahoma because it was cold and raining at midnight.

Line 28

who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the brilliant Spaniard to
converse about America and Eternity, a hopeless task, and so took ship to Africa,
  This section of the poem concerns traveling, both through the United States and around the world.

 They wandered around Houston, Texas in the hopes of finding good music, or someone to have sex with, or
something to eat, or maybe all of the above.

 As to who the "brilliant Spaniard" is, we haven't a clue. One of the early American explorers, perhaps?

 But they found it impossible to talk about "America and Eternity" with this Spaniard, so they sail to Africa.

Line 29

who disappeared into the volcanoes of Mexico leaving behind nothing but the shadow of dungarees and the lava and ash
of poetry scattered in fire place Chicago,

 This sounds like quite the trip. They disappeared into a Mexican volcano, leaving behind only the "shadow" of
their pants ("dungarees") and the burnt-up fragments of poetry that they threw in a fire in Chicago.

Line 30

who reappeared on the West Coast investigating the F.B.I. in beards and shorts with big pacifist eyes sexy in their dark
skin passing out incomprehensible leaflets,

 They're back in the U.S. again. Having started out in New York, they are now on the West Coast. They turned the
tables on the F.B.I. by investigating it. (Which is like threatening to arrest a police officer.)

 The speaker is describing the origins of the modern anti-war movement, which began in places like Berkeley,
California with pacifists handing out leaflets to passersby on the street.

Section I, Lines 31-35

Line 31

who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism,

 In order to protest capitalism, and Big Tobacco in particular, they put cigarettes out on their arms.

 It's a bit ironic that the speaker praises drug addicts that protest capitalism, yet compares capitalism to a drug
("narcotic tobacco haze").

Line 32

who distributed Supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square weeping and undressing while the sirens of Los Alamos
wailed them down, and wailed down Wall, and the Staten Island ferry also wailed,

 Some of the "best minds" are communists. Ginsberg himself was very interested in Marxism, much to the dismay
of Jack Kerouac, who refers to him as "Carlo Marx" in On the Road.

 They distributed pro-communist pamphlets until they were "wailed down" by police sirens and presumably
arrested in places like Los Alamos, New Mexico and Wall Street. It probably didn't help that they were naked
after "undressing" in public.

Line 33

who broke down crying in white gymnasiums naked and trembling before the machinery of other skeletons,

 There's that word "machinery" again, this time used in a negative sense relating to skeletons. The "best minds," in
fact, may not be more than skeletons after years of starvation or drug use.

 The "white gymnasium" sounds like a mental hospital, a homeless shelter, or a refuge.
  This section of the poem features a lot of screaming, shrieking, and weeping.

Line 34

who bit detectives in the neck and shrieked with delight in policecars for committing no crime but their own wild cooking
pederasty and intoxication,

 It's generally not a good idea to bite police officers, but they did it anyway. Then they got hauled off in the squad
car.

 Their crimes include "wild cooking," "pederasty," and "intoxication." If "wild cooking" were really a crime, then
our grandmother would be in the big house by now.

 As for "pederasty," it refers to an erotic relationship between an adult man and an adolescent boy (not as in
pedophilia, with pre-adolescent children). This relationship does not necessarily have to be sexual (if it were, it
could be an actual crime, depending on the age of the boy). "Pederasty" was common among the Ancient Greeks,
for example, including philosophers like Socrates.

Line 35

who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manuscripts,

 They made a commotion on the subway and got kicked off the roof of a building, naked once again.

 They are also holding manuscripts, which means they are writers.

Section I, Lines 36-40

Line 36

who let themselves be f***ed in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy,

 They had sex with bikers and loved it.

 We've already seen how several unusual types of people have been compared to saints, angels, and other holy
figures, and here the motorcyclists are called "saintly." Ginsberg used religious language in new and unexpected
contexts, which he hoped would make people reconsider traditional ideas.

 By the way, this is one of the lines that caught the attention of government censors and led to the famous trial
involving Howl.

Line 37

who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love,

 In addition to sex with motorcyclists, they also exchanged oral sex with sailors on leave.

 As in line 35, this line combines religious language ("seraphim" are an order of angels) with blunt descriptions of
sexuality. This line was also cited in the censorship trial.

Line 38

who balled in the morning in the evenings in rose gardens and the grass of public parks and cemeteries scattering their
semen freely to whomever come who may,

 They had anonymous sex with strangers in public gardens and parks.

 Before homosexuality acquired wider acceptance in society, gay men sometimes found partners in certain remote
public areas within places such as parks.
Line 39

who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob behind a partition in a Turkish Bath when the blond &
naked angel came to pierce them with a sword,

 A "Turkish Bath" is another place where men sometimes had anonymous sexual encounters with one another.

 The "best minds" were trying to laugh but ended up with a sob instead.

 And "sword" is a phallic reference.

Line 40

who lost their loveboys to the three old shrews of fate the one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar the one eyed shrew
that winks out of the womb and the one eyed shrew that does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectual golden
threads of the craftsman's loom,

 The speaker is talking about how the three ways in which they lost their gay lovers. The "three old shrews of fate"
is an allusion to the Three Fates, mythological goddesses who decided when a person's life would end by cutting a
thread.

 The speaker is suggesting that the men lost their "loveboys" to metaphorical women. Strangely, these women
have "one eye," which suggests phallic imagery.

 The first such shrew is the "heterosexual dollar," which probably means that the boys gave up being gay for the
sake of their careers.

 The second "winks of out of the womb," which probably means that the men got their girlfriends pregnant.

 The third sounds like a parody of a wife who "does nothing but sit on her ass." As in, the boys got married and
had to give up their male lovers. She may be an allusion to Penelope, the wife of Odysseus in the The Odyssey,
who spent a lot of time sewing at her loom. But, of course, the "threads" also refer back to the idea of death and
the Fates.

Section I, Lines 41-45

Line 41

who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a candle and fell off the
bed, and continued along the floor and down the hall and ended fainting on the wall with a vision of ultimate cunt and
come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness,

 Here the poem begins to move toward a discussion of heterosexuality. They have sex with everything and
anything, including beer, cigarettes, and "a sweetheart."

 The speaker seems to be using the word "copulate" very loosely.

 They are "ecstatic" as they have sex, and they also can't ever get enough ("insatiate"). It must have been a pretty
aggressive coupling, because they fall off the bed and keep doing it until they faint by the wall after what seems to
have been an intense orgasm.

Line 42

who sweetened the snatches of a million girls trembling in the sunset, and were red eyed in the morning but prepared to
sweeten the snatch of the sun rise, flashing buttocks under barns and naked in the lake,

 "Snatch" is a vulgar term for the female genitalia.

  They stayed up all night in the countryside having sex ("a million girls" might be a slight exaggeration), and they
still had enough left in the tank to want to have sex with the sunrise and run around naked.

Line 43

who went out whoring through Colorado in myriad stolen night-cars, N.C., secret hero of these poems, cocksman and
Adonis of Denver-joy to the memory of his innumerable lays of girls in empty lots & diner backyards, moviehouses'
rickety rows, on mountaintops in caves or with gaunt waitresses in familiar roadside lonely petticoat upliftings &
especially secret gas-station solipsisms of johns, & hometown alleys too,

 They visited prostitutes after stealing cars in Colorado.

 If you've read On the Road, you know that Denver was a central location for the Beats as they crisscrossed the
country.

 "N.C." stands for Neal Cassady, who was thought to be the inspiration behind Dean Moriarty in Kerouac's On the
Road. Cassady was known for having an incredible sexual appetite. This line celebrates his amorous escapades in
all kinds of locations.

 The speaker says Cassady was an "Adonis," or an exceptionally beautiful male. Ginsberg was in love with him for
a time, and they even had a one-sided sexual relationship, but Cassady was straight, so things weren't meant to be
(source). The speaker calls him "the secret hero of these poems."

Line 44

who faded out in vast sordid movies, were shifted in dreams, woke on a sudden Manhattan, and picked themselves up out
of basements hung over with heartless Tokay and horrors of Third Avenue iron dreams & stumbled to unemployment
offices,

 From the high-spirited discussion of sex, the poem now moves to some of their low points, like waking up hung-
over and unemployed after a long bender on alcohol. "Tokay" is a variety of wine.

 Even their dreams are hard, as if made of "iron."

Line 45

who walked all night with their shoes full of blood on the snowbank docks waiting for a door in the East River to open to
a room full of steamheat and opium,

 Once again back in New York, they did so much walking that their shoes filled up with blood.

 Their destination? A mysterious building with warm air and opium (a drug made of poppies).

Section I, Lines 46-50

Line 46

who created great suicidal dramas on the apartment cliff-banks of the Hudson under the wartime blue floodlight of the
moon & their heads shall be crowned with laurel in oblivion,

 They considered killing themselves by jumping off an apartment building.

 To be "crowned with laurel" means to place a wreath of laurel leaves on someone's head after some big
accomplishment, such as writing a great poem or winning a race. The idea goes back to Ancient Greece and
Rome. The speaker ironically states that they would be praised as heroes if they committed suicide.

Line 47

who ate the lamb stew of the imagination or digested the crab at the muddy bottom of the rivers of Bowery,
  The Bowery is another neighborhood in New York. At that time, it was a slum. Today, it's in the hip and high-
priced East Village.

 The speaker seems to be suggesting that they had to eat imaginary lamb or some toxic-sounding crab because they
could not afford real food.

Line 48

who wept at the romance of the streets with their pushcarts full of onions and bad music,

 They were homeless people wheeling shopping carts around the city. The carts were filled with onions (a cheap –
and unsatisfying – source of food) and "bad music."

 They cried about how romantic the streets looked.

Line 49

who sat in boxes breathing in the darkness under the bridge, and rose up to build harpsichords in their lofts,

 They started out so poor they had to live in a box underneath a bridge, but they "rose up" to have enough money
to afford a small apartment where they built musical instruments.

 The harpsichord is like a piano, except its strings are plucked instead of hammered.

Line 50

who coughed on the sixth floor of Harlem crowned with flame under the tubercular sky surrounded by orange crates of
theology,

 They are sick, possibly with tuberculosis, which causes fits of coughing. Tuberculosis causes people to cough up
blood, so a "tubercular sky" would probably be red or reddish orange. It could be sunset.

Section I, Lines 51-55

Line 51

who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas of gibberish,

 In a frenzy of inspiration, they wrote poems all night long, only to discover the poems were terrible in the
morning.

Line 52

who cooked rotten animals lung heart feet tail borsht & tortillas dreaming of the pure vegetable kingdom,

 They were idealistic vegetarians who ate rotten animals. To be honest, it sounds like they were eating the
equivalent of road kill. They had lofty intentions about the animals, but they were so hungry that they ate anything
that came their way.

Line 53

who plunged themselves under meat trucks looking for an egg,

 Why would you find an egg under a meat truck? Anyway, these guys were really, really hungry.

Line 54

who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on their heads
every day for the next decade,
  They threw their watches off of a rooftop in a naïve attempt to escape time, and fate rewards them by sending a
cascade of alarm clocks onto their heads. This line has a sense of dark humor in it.

Line 55

who cut their wrists three times successively unsuccessfully, gave up and were forced to open antique stores where they
thought they were growing old and cried,

 They tried to kill themselves by cutting their wrists three times but didn't succeed.

 The speaker gives us the impression that it wasn't unhappiness that led them to attempt suicide; it was the desire
not to grow old.

 Needing money, they had to open antique stores, which only made them feel even older and sadder.

Section I, Lines 56-60

Line 56

who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue amid blasts of leaden verse & the tanked-up
clatter of the iron regiments of fashion & the nitroglycerine shrieks of the fairies of advertising & the mustard gas of
sinister intelligent editors, or were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality,

 We've seen how Ginsberg associates universities with warfare, and here he also associates warfare with
advertisers.

 The "best minds" got trapped in advertising jobs on Madison Avenue in New York, where they were "burned
alive," figuratively speaking. The speaker contrasts tools of warfare like mustard gas and nitroglycerine with
figures from the advertising industry like "intelligent editors" and "verse," like the jingle that Ginsberg wrote for
Ipana toothpaste when he worked on Madison Avenue.

 They also get run down by a "drunken taxicab" representing "Absolute Reality," or the true nature of things.

Line 57

who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually happened and walked away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly
daze of Chinatown soup alley ways & firetrucks, not even one free beer,

 After so many unbelievable disasters, the speaker lets us know that this one "actually happened." They jumped off
the Brooklyn Bridge (which is really high) and somehow survived to swim ashore at Chinatown. And they didn't
even get a free beer for their troubles.

Line 58

who sang out of their windows in despair, fell out of the subway window, jumped in the filthy Passaic, leaped on n****es,
cried all over the street, danced on broken wineglasses barefoot smashed phonograph records of nostalgic European
1930s German jazz finished the whiskey and threw up groaning into the bloody toilet, moans in their ears and the blast of
colossal steam whistles,

 It sounds like they were drunk during these escapades, when they did things like jump in the Passaic River in New
Jersey and "danced on broken wineglasses."

 They also broke German jazz records from the 1930s, probably because it reminded them of the rise of Nazism.

Line 59

who barreled down the highways of the past journeying to each other's hotrod-Golgotha jail-solitude watch or
Birmingham jazz incarnation,
  Let's get things clear: the Beats loved road trips. (Think of Kerouac's On the Road.) This was back when gas was
cheap.

 They drove at breakneck speeds down old highways to reach "hotrod-Golgotha," to meet a friend who had been
released from prison, or to go listen to jazz in Birmingham, Alabama.

 "Golgotha" is the name of the hill where Jesus Christ was crucified, so "hotrod-Golgotha" would be…where
racecars were crucified? You can come up with your own explanation for that one.

Line 60

who drove crosscountry seventytwo hours to find out if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had a vision to find out
Eternity,

 They drove for three straight days, or 72 hours, in the hope that someone in the car would have a spiritual vision
about Eternity.

Section I, Lines 61-65

Line 61

who journeyed to Denver, who died in Denver, who came back to Denver & waited in vain, who watched over Denver &
brooded & loned in Denver and finally went away to find out the Time, & now Denver is lonesome for her heroes,

 See, we told you Denver was important to the Beats. It was located along one of the main cross-country
highways, so they could have someplace to crash for a while on their frequent trips from the East Coast to the
West Coast and back again.

 Eventually, however, most people left Denver, which made the city "lonesome for her heroes." Ginsberg may
have Neal Cassady in mind again.

Line 62

who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other's salvation and light and breasts, until the soul
illuminated its hair for a second,

 In a particularly "hopeless" mood, they prayed in cathedrals for "salvation and light and breasts."

 Also, the soul has hair? Who knew!

Line 63

who crashed through their minds in jail waiting for impossible criminals with golden heads and the charm of reality in
their hearts who sang sweet blues to Alcatraz,

 They went to jail and hoped to meet "criminals with golden heads," like the halos surrounding the heads of angels
in older paintings. These criminals would pine for the famous Alcatraz prison by singing blues songs.

 We take it that they never do meet these criminals that the speaker calls "impossible."

Line 64

who retired to Mexico to cultivate a habit, or Rocky Mount to tender Buddha or Tangiers to boys or Southern Pacific to
the black locomotive or Harvard to Narcissus to Woodlawn to the daisychain or grave,

 Even when they retired, they were still doing crazy stuff.

 In Mexico they "cultivate a habit," likely meaning they developed an addiction to a kind of drug.
  In Rocky Mount, North Carolina, they went out in the nature to search for the Buddha. (Jack Kerouac's sister
lived in Rocky Mount).

 In Tangiers, Morocco, they started love affairs with boys.

 The Southern Pacific is a railroad, so the speaker probably means they become wandering tramps.

 At Harvard they became self-centered people or "narcissists."

 At the Woodlawn Cemetery in New York, they either engaged in a group sexual activity called a "daisychain" or
they are dead.

Line 65

who demanded sanity trials accusing the radio of hypnotism & were left with their insanity & their hands & a hung jury,

 It's unclear whose "sanity" is being put on trial in this line.

 They accused the radio of trying to "hypnotize" them. In the end, they remain the ones who are considered
"insane."

Section I, Lines 66-70

Line 66

who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps of the
madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding instantaneous lobotomy,

 It's not a good idea to throw potato salad at your professors if you want to stay in a class, but we have to admit
this image is hilarious.

 "CCNY" stands for the City College of New York, and Dadaism was an avant-garde artistic movement in France
characterized by absurdity and rule-breaking. Followers of Dadaism did things like put urinals on display in
museums. The irony of this line is that the professor was supposed to be teaching the students about Dadaism, but
throwing potato salad at a professor is a very Dadaist thing to do. This action shows that the students already
understood the movement better than their teacher.

 After the potato salad incident, they show up at the insane asylum, or "madhouse," talking about suicide and
demanding a "lobotomy," a surgical operation in which part of the brain is removed.

 Maybe you've read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or seen the Jack Nicholson movie, in which a character is
given a lobotomy as punishment for misbehaving. Ginsberg and other members of the sub-culture in the 1950s
and 60s were very worried about the treatments given to people with psychiatric disorders. They believed these
treatments were often unnecessary and damaging. They were designed to make a person "normal" again – that is,
fit for polite society.

 Howl is dedicated to Carl Solomon, who underwent another drastic treatment, shock therapy, while in a
psychiatric hospital. Ginsberg's suspicion and downright hostility to such treatments comes through strongly in
this poem.

Line 67

and who were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol electricity hydrotherapy psychotherapy occupational
therapy pingpong & amnesia,

 This section of the poem deals with treatments for psychiatric problems. Instead of a lobotomy, they were given a
bunch of other treatments, which are useless at best ("pingpong," anyone?) and dangerous at worst ("electricity"
refers to the dreaded shock therapy).
Line 68

who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic pingpong table, resting briefly in catatonia,

 In protest of these psychiatric treatments, they overturned their pingpong table in the hospital.

 After they flip over the table, they go silent and remain perfectly still, a condition known as "catatonia."

Line 69

returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible mad man doom of the wards
of the madtowns of the East,

 When they are released from the psychiatric hospital, they are bald and their head is bleeding, perhaps through the
scars of their lobotomy.

 The speaker suggests that the truly insane people might not be in the hospitals, but rather in the "madtowns of the
East." So, normal people might be the craziest of all.

Line 70

Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, rocking and rolling in the
midnight solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a nightmare, bodies turned to stone as heavy as the moon,

 This line describes the disgusting or "foetid" halls of three real psychiatric institutions, Pilgrim State Hospital
(where Ginsberg's mother passed away), Rockland State Hospital (referenced as where Ginsberg and Carl
Solomon met, though they actually met at Columbia Presbyterian), and Greystone State Hospital (another facility
that Naomi Ginsberg and Carl Solomon were admitted to).

 Inside these halls, people talk to themselves and become motionless like stones.

Section I, Lines 71-75

Line 71

with mother finally ******, and the last fantastic book flung out of the tenement window, and the last door closed at 4.
A.M. and the last telephone slammed at the wall in reply and the last furnished room emptied down to the last piece of
mental furniture, a yellow paper rose twisted on a wire hanger in the closet, and even that imaginary, nothing but a
hopeful little bit of hallucination

 What happened to "mother"? Ginsberg uses asterisks to produce a mysterious fill-in-the-blank answer to this
question.

 Like Carl Solomon, Ginsberg's mother suffered from mental illness that required her to seek treatment.

 In this line, the "best minds" are at the end of the rope, and the mood focuses on the word "last."

 Everything has gone to hell, there are no more good books left to read, everyone has left the party, and the phone
was smashed against the wall. It's the final straw. Even the "yellow paper rose" in the empty closet of their
cleaned-out apartment is "imaginary."

Line 72

ah, Carl, while you are not safe I am not safe, and now you're really in the total animal soup of time

 Now that they have hit rock bottom, here's the first big shift in the poem.

 The speaker professes his solidarity with Carl Solomon, to whom the poem is dedicated. As long as Solomon
remains in a psychiatric institution, he is unsafe, and as long as he is unsafe, the speaker is unsafe.
  They are mixed up in a confusing "animal soup of time."

Line 73

and who therefore ran through the icy streets obsessed with a sudden flash of the alchemy of the use of the ellipse the
catalog the meter & the vibrating plane,

 The speaker starts talking about how they got interested in poetry, maybe in order to explain why he is writing
this poem. The word "therefore" connects the motivation to write poetry to Carl Solomon's sad situation.

 "Ellipse," "catalog," and "meter" all refer to poetic techniques, which produce a magical effect similar to alchemy,
the science of turning base elements to gold.

 "Catalog," we should mention, is simply a list of things, but it's one of the most important techniques in Howl.
The entire poem thus far has been nothing more than a list of descriptions of the "best minds." Ginsberg models
his use of catalog after Walt Whitman, whose poems are the textbook example of this technique.

Line 74

who dreamt and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space through images juxtaposed, and trapped the archangel of the soul
between 2 visual images and joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and dash of consciousness together jumping
with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus

 The speaker continues discussing the magical properties of poetry. For example, the contrast or "juxtaposition" of
two visual images can create "gaps in Time & Space."

 He compares poetic elements to parts of the soul and consciousness, as if poetry were central to existence and not
merely a specialized art form.

 "Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus" is Latin for, "All-Powerful Father the Eternal God."

Line 75

to recreate the syntax and measure of poor human prose and stand before you speechless and intelligent and shaking with
shame, rejected yet confessing out the soul to conform to the rhythm of thought in his naked and endless head,

 By writing poetry, they try to reshape the "syntax and measure," or the order and rhythm, of prose into something
greater. They try to write in a way that will match the "rhythm of thought." You might call this a kind of poetic
"stream of consciousness."

 Ginsberg has said that Howl came about when he decided to write down thoughts as they came into his head,
which explains the frantic and disjointed but extremely energetic rhythm of the poem (source).

Section I, Lines 76-78

Line 76

the madman bum and angel beat in Time, unknown, yet putting down here what might be left to say in time come after
death,

 They try to find the rhythm or "beat" of the "madman bum and angel," who might be one and the same. But this
beat is "unknown."

 They write down things they hope will be relevant "after death."

Line 77

and rose reincarnate in the ghostly clothes of jazz in the goldhorn shadow of the band and blew the suffering of America's
naked mind for love into an eli eli lamma lamma sabacthani saxophone cry that shivered the cities down to the last radio
  After death, they came back to life ("rose reincarnate") like Jesus Christ. They now resembled jazz musicians.
Their saxophones told a story of people who suffered for love.

 The phrase "eli, eli lamma lamma sabacthani" roughly translates to Christ's sad words on the Cross, "My God, My
God, why have you forsaken me?"

 According to the speaker, jazz captures the emotion of people who feel abandoned by God.

Line 78

with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years.

 Their poetry is compared to a part of themselves that they cut from their bodies. Writing is self-sacrifice, like the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

 Their poems can be "eaten" even a thousand years later, similar to the way Christians believe Christ's body is
eaten in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

 For the speaker, poets and musicians are the redeemers and saviors of the world.