Mid Term Essay topic 3

Taylor Kurtz

Dr. Tatia Jacobson Jordan

AML 3311-05: Major Figures in American Literature

4 March 2010

Essay Topic 3

The impact had by Allen Ginsberg, and more specifically his famous piece “Howl”, on the American literature scene is unmistakable and quite well documented. The influence of “Howl” is so great that it has reached several impactful members of society, including but not limited to Bob Dylan. Together Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg were able to make Beat poetry mainstream in the 1960s.

Ginsberg’s masterpiece is broken up into three separate parts and also includes a footnote. However, it is the opening part that most shows the influence had on Ginsberg by the people he met in the decades prior to the story’s publication. Bob Dylan openly states that he did not even think of writing poetry or music until he was already out of high school. Dylan states that when he was eighteen years of age, he discovered Ginsberg and inspired him to begin composing poetry and eventually lyrics. Eventually, in the year 1961, a journalist and mutual friend of Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg named Al Aronowitz introduced the two and an instant mutual admiration and friendship was formed.

When it comes to Bob Dylan’s music and poetry, the most impactful mark made on it by “Howl” was definitely the rhythm, which from the very beginning of the poem is marked by having noticeably long lines: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…who poverty and tatters and hallow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness” (Ginsberg, 1956). Bob Dylan’s music and writing is also best known for his long stanzas, as well as deep, metaphorical lyrics that are often used as a social commentary describing the issues he sees in the world.

Dylan and Ginsberg became so close of friends that they took on almost a father-son relationship. They even went as far as to collaborate on several projects, including a few songs in which Ginsberg would take over lead vocals as Dylan worked the guitar, back up vocals, and harmonica for the music. Additionally, on Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour, which later became a DVD available for sale, Ginsberg can be seen joining Dylan on stage to perform the song “This Land is Yours.”

Dylan’s respect for Ginsberg was mutual, with Ginsberg having great admiration for the way Dylan was bringing poetry back to the mainstream public: “Ginsberg praised Dylan’s work as returning poetry to the human body through the medium of music… he [even] wrote three poems in praise of Dylan” (Willis 90-93). Thus, not only did Ginsberg’s “Howl” become an American literature classic, but also had a great impact on music in such a way that it brought poetry back to the mainstream American public.

Works Cited

Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and other Poems. N.p.: City Lights Publishers, 2001. Print.

Willis, David. “Father & Son: Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan.” Beatdom. N.p., 2007. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. . An article describing the relationship of Ginsberg and Dylan and the impact they both had on poetry.