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In 1975 I first read "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg in a modern poetry class. I remember thinking: You can say that?! And I also thought: You can say that, that way?!
2006 has been the 50th anniversary of "Howl." Jason Shinder's timely book, The Poem That Changed America: "Howl" Fifty Years Later celebrates the mind-bending poem. In the book, various writers, artists, and musicians reveal their feelings and impressions about reading the poem for the first time. My favorites include Amiri Baraka, Andrei Codrescu, Gordon Ball, Alicia Ostriker, David Gates, and Anne Waldman.
This fall I taught "Howl" for the first time to a class of first year college students. A sample of the generation raised on rap, hip-hop, and alternative rock found the poem rather less than revolutionary. But I think that their response shows each generation must howl in its own way.
