A Heart Cry By Allen Ginsberg - 1687 Words

A Heart Cry The Webster’s dictionary defines a howl as a loud cry of pain, anger or amusement(Webster). When you want to be heard, you use a strong voice that will get you noticed. That is what Allen Ginsberg did. Allen Ginsberg is a poet from the 50’s. He was born in 1926 and was raised in New Jersey(Charters). He was about 30 years old when he wrote his poem entitled Howl. In his poem he uses very explicit and vulgar language, which later caused the book to be banned. Throughout the poem there are different themes like intellectual institutions, madness, religion, depression, sex, drugs, government, sexuality and many more that no one was talking or writing about during this time. The poem focuses around the life of Ginsberg and his†¦show more content†¦His friends included guys like Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William S. Burroughs. These are just few names that make up the Beat Poets. Throughout part one Ginsberg is talking about the who. Almos t every line in the poem begins with who. The who in the poem is the most important part of part one. He centers part one around his friends and how they are brainwashed by intellectual institutions such as universities. Line six says, â€Å"who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war(Line 6).† Here he and his friends enter into the institution of great universities with a sense of wonder and excitement, but quickly realize it is all a hallucination. Blake-light tragedy refers to the artist William Blake who is known for his intense paintings that are more on the dark side. The following line says, â€Å"who were expelled from the academies for crazy(Line 7),† which shows how Ginsberg and friends were viewed as being radical about their view on the world. So much so that they were expelled from their universities. The tone in part one is very strong. Throughout part one, Ginsberg pain ts a picture for the reader and brings the reader into his world. His passion against the institution of universities and government brings