Rating: 
Summary: A Scream into the Void
Review: "Howl" is perhaps the most aptly titled poem ever. What Allen Ginsberg does with his poetry is exactly that: scream and howl and tear away at all notions of conformity. The epitome of Beat Literature is it's uninhibited energy, of which Howl is a primal statement. Ginsberg unleashes all demons, social to sexual, and leaves the reader with a sense of a man who is in tune with himself and his environment. Gone are the rigid structures of verse and meter, instead they are replaced with a zest for life and a zest for the uncompromising truth. Beat Generation writings thrive on the sound and the fury their literature contains, not bothering with too many pretentions and conventions.
As for comparisons, Howl follows in the tradition of Walt Whitman (who is given a strange but touching ode in Howl), with it's yelps and ecstatic screams. Like Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", "Howl" expands the boundaries and concepts of what poetry is.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Magic
Review: Ginsberg is one of the top ten poets who have ever lived. A true visionary like Blake. *Howl and Other Poems* is his best work--his equivalent of the *Songs of Innocence and Experience* More than just a poet, of course, he is also a mystic and prophet. He sees the truth behind the surface. The beauty behind the pain of America's idealistic outcasts of his generation as they go "mad" from having seen to much and hoped for too much and pushed things too far. The ugliness and desparation that hide behind the nice orderly facade of everyday life. Ginsberg's poetry can express the most absolute dispair (the "Moloch" section of "Howl" still feels like a close brush with death even though I've read it hundreds of times), but he can also express such amzaing spiritual joy. In this regard he is more like the Sufi poets than anything Western. This sense of the divine within all things and all experience. The "Holy! Holy! Holy!" litany in the footnote to "Howl" ; the love song to Love itself in "Song." This little collection expresses more in less than 100 pages than is imaginable unless you have experienced it first hand.
Rating:
Summary: Mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
Review: The title for the main poem and susequently this collection was coined by Jack Kerouac. Howl was the word he used to describe a certain kind of poetry which Ginsberg was a master.
Howl is easy to understand if you know who it is about. It can be broken up by person, most of whom you may have heard of- Kerouac, Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Orlovsky, and other nameless people he met along his path. In writing Howl, he created them all equal, as they should be. Some people are great writers, poets, heros, but everyone, no matter how seemingly small, is a great person with incredible stories. Ginsberg captured this sentiment and created HOWL!
My other favorite poem in this collection is AMERICA. This poem is as true today as it was January 17, 1956 So true, it's eerie. Read the poem if you don't believe me.
Rating:
Summary: A Scream into the Void
Review: "Howl" is perhaps the most aptly titled poem ever. What Allen Ginsberg does with his poetry is exactly that: scream and howl and tear away at all notions of conformity. The epitome of Beat Literature is it's uninhibited energy, of which Howl is a primal statement. Ginsberg unleashes all demons, social to sexual, and leaves the reader with a sense of a man who is in tune with himself and his environment. Gone are the rigid structures of verse and meter, instead they are replaced with a zest for life and a zest for the uncompromising truth. Beat Generation writings thrive on the sound and the fury their literature contains, not bothering with too many pretentions and conventions.
As for comparisons, Howl follows in the tradition of Walt Whitman (who is given a strange but touching ode in Howl), with it's yelps and ecstatic screams. Like Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", "Howl" expands the boundaries and concepts of what poetry is.
Rating:
Summary: He saw the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness
Review: ....and wrote about it. Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" is one of the great works of modern literature. This is poetry from the heart, but more importantly, from the gut. Ginsberg writes with such guttural, visceral venom that it's easy to see why, in the taboo-ridden 1950's, he was so controversial, not just in "Howl" but also in poems such as "America". It's not controversy-courting material, however, it's simply Ginsberg telling it like it is, or at least was. Here, poetry is taken from the sole preserve of the romantics and transported to an almost documentary-like raw social comment, yet it's accessible and supremely enjoyable, even funny in parts. An essential read.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST-HAVE Book
Review: And as one of the most profound poem of the 20th century began..."I saw the best minds of my generation
destroyed by madness,
while starving hysterically naked,
and roaming the streets with an angry fix..." Allen Ginsberg, master poet and storyteller of the Beat Generation, became the omnipotent force of the newly formatted Beatnik movement that, through insanity, madness, and periods of solitude, rose from the depth of the west coast, specifically in the woefully sexy city of Berkeley, CA, to the cumulative vortex that remained in pieces on the seductive streets of NYC's Lower East Side community. "Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in houses, we'll both be lonely." The poem-dense book, "Howl & Other Poems" not only includes both parts of "Howl" but includes other classical works such as "Kaddish" (a beautifully rendered tribute to Ginsberg's mother- a figure whom he continued to question the delicate balances of her love toward him and vice versa) and "A Supermarket in California" where he composes a rather brief poem, spanning from his powerful visions of him and Walt Whitman walking upon the solitary streets, wondering what has become of their things as he allows Whitman's "beard to point them in the right direction." "The madman bum and angel beat in Time, unknown, yet putting down here what might be left to say in time, coming after death." Overall this book is the equivalent of a historical text-book, in terms of the Beat Generation's poetry. It also contains several short poems that were written under the influence of... certain substances and poems related to Ginsberg's sexual experiences, as well. The one interesting side to the book itself is that, in my opinion, not only it is a reflection of a singular man's views, experiences, desires, and emotions, but it is a mirror of the vastly unknown and abnormally tucked-away world, that the reader can reflect upon. This book is worth owning. Another Amazon quick pick I'd like to recommend is The Losers Club by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading
Review: In 'Howl and Other Poems' Allen Ginsburg plumbs the depths of primal human emotion from the perspective of the disenfranchised bohemians of 1950s urban America. With haunting phrases and cadences influenced by sources as disparate as Hebrew liturgy and ad copy, Ginsburg evokes the joy and despair of a affluent Post-World-War-II decade lived in the shadow of the Bomb and Eisenhower's grim military-industrial complex. 'Beat' writing is a unique, experimental genre which transcends the strictures of contemporary academic style and content, dealing forthrightly with drug abuse, homosexuality, and other taboo subjects of the time. Allen Ginsburg and his creative associates were the stellar grass-roots poets of their generation, and deserve a careful reading both for enjoyment and understanding of an important time of transition in American society. Buy this book! I'd also like to thank the reviewer who mentioned The Losers Club by Richard Perez, about a poet in New York's East Village. Another great Amazon pick!
Rating:
Summary: ...i have no words
Review: Read it. That's about all I can say. Okay, that done, let me try to describe just how amazing "Howl" is. It's madness crammed into phrases and words. It's thoughts and lies and ideals spinning around in periods and commas. It winds a hand around your throat, until you're sure you can't breathe, because the words... the words are overwhelming you. That's "Howl." I can't even begin to understand this poem, this brilliant, brilliant poem. I can't even begin to explain to you exactly why this poem, to me, feels like a work of a genius. All I know is that you should read it at least once. Because it's a haunting poem, and it's something I will probably never, ever comprehend. The poem is made from letters, but it feels like someone's broken dream.
Rating: 
Summary: ! lame!
Review: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, staring hysterical . Awesome line, one of the best i've come across, but there isn't much more that's remotely appealing about Howl. I know that it's supposed to be vulgar and cruel, but it just isn't worth your time. And the price is outrageous for what you get, about what would be ten or fifteen pages of text on normal sized paper, and only a handfull of good lines. I wasted my money on it. Why not go check out Lilith, Phantastes, Dave Weckel Band, or Cat's Cradle for some real poetry, if that's the sort of person you are.
Rating:
Summary: Read and Understand
Review: I used to think that people didn't read things like "Howl" because they didn't understand. But as I have grown older I've come to the realization that is has much more to do with their NOT wanting to understand. It is easy to read, but not easy to understand. It causes one to think -- no, to have to think. One has to think about "Howl" if one reads it. It is one of those weird things you still think about years later on some lame Tuesday afternoon while paying bills. So, most people avoid it so they don't have to try and come to grips with the affects it can have on their minds. Football and movies are easier for people to deal with most of the time. I don't know if this is a bad thing anymore. People want to live comfortable lives, and if one thinks uncomfortable thoughts, then life can become uncomfortable. One is forced into action to try and help right the wrongs of this world, and that is not easy. Wrongs stay in place in large measure because people don't know how to fix them. Sure, we can quote RFK and say, "some see things that never were and ask why not", but saying things like that is the easy part. Reading, "Howl" changes a person. Makes them uncomfortable, but it means to do that. It is a great piece of writing. It is probably the best piece of poetry written in the last half of the 20th century in the United States. But beware; because it causes one of think of change. Change can be good, and it can be bad. I like to think "Howl" is good because it opened my eyes to ugly thoughts. True, ugly can be beautiful. But remember the hardest thing about change -- it is.
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