[New-Poetry] Howling

[Helen Ruggieri]

I liked the Pinsky essay and I agree about teaching "Howl" - the excitement it generates among the 18 year olds reminds me about being 18
and reading Howl for the first time - the dazzlement.  So ambitious.  


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Graham 
  To: NewPoetry & Views 
  Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 11:40 AM
  Subject: [New-Poetry] Howling


  Wondering if anyone's seen the new book of essays on Ginsberg's *Howl* that's getting a lot of attention recently?


  Pinsky's essay from it is up now at Poetry Daily, and I think is excellent:


  http://www.poems.com/essapins.htm


  Pinsky focuses on a number of things, including the poem's linguistic extravagance and its complete lack of postmodern cool.


  There's also a review by David Barber at PD, whose point I am not quite sure I understand.  


  http://www.poems.com/news.htm


  Barber seems unduly exercised about the book's admittedly silly subtitle, "The Poem That Changed America."  I'd grant him that point, certainly.  


  But beyond that, he appears to be uncovering a circumstance that is the opposite of news, and in fact is something repeatedly stressed by its own author from the beginning:  the fact that "Howl" is in many respects a traditional poem, with deep roots in Blake, Whitman, the prophetic books of the Old Testament, etc.  Nor do I see any incompatibility between that situation and the fact that the poem did overturn a few applecarts on several fronts.


  It's the leap from describing the poem's traditonal roots to terming it "dolefully retrograde" and "a period piece" that I don't understand. 


  I taught Ginsberg and *Howl* this term to my undergraduates, many of whom were challenged and excited by it, and easily able to see both its firm cultural roots and its importance to current trends in poetry.  Others disliked the poem fairly enthusiastically, rather as I imagine many readers in 1956 did.  The poem still provokes, on any number of levels.  In other words, not really a period piece in any way that I can see.  



  ==========================================

  David Graham

  grahamd at ripon.edu

  Home Page:

  http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/index.html

  Poetry Library:

  http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html

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