Howl: Key Poetic Devices

Allusion

An allusion (uh-LOO-zhun) is a passing reference to a literary or historical person, place, or event, usually made without explicit identification. Allusion plays a significant role in “Howl,” which contains a wide range of references to geography, art, theology, and philosophy. At times, the references in the poem are obvious, as in the case of the proper names listed in line 24:

who studied Plotinus Poe St. John of the Cross telepathy and bop kaballah [sic] because the cosmos instinctively vibrated at their fee in Kansas

In quick succession, the speaker alludes to three important figures in philosophy (Plotinus), literature (Edgar Allan Poe), and theology (St. John of the Cross). All three of these figures are renowned for their visionary and even mystical writings, and the speaker’s references to them contribute to the poem’s thematic interest in mysticism and the revelatory possibilities of the imagination. At other times, the poem’s allusions may be less obvious. In line 40, for instance, the speaker refers to “the three old shrews of fate.” This is an allusion to the three Fates of Greek mythology, who determined the length of each individual human life by spinning a length of thread and severing it at the time of the individual’s death. This, along with the poem’s many other allusions, connects “Howl” to the rich lineages of art, philosophy, and religion in the Western tradition.

Anaphora

Anaphora (ann-AF-uh-rah) is a rhetorical technique that involves the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a succession of clauses. Ginsberg uses anaphora in all three parts of “Howl.” In part 1, anaphora shows up in the way most lines begin with the same word, “who,” which serves as a subordinating conjunction that introduces the thought in each new line. In part 2, anaphora appears in the repeated opening invocation of the Canaanite fire god, “Moloch!” Finally, the anaphora in part 3 comes from the recurrent phrase, “I’m with you in Rockland,” which the speaker utters in between each of the longer lines that make up the section. Ginsberg’s use of anaphora lends the poem an incantatory quality, as if there’s something prophetic about the speaker’s apocalyptic visions of madness and decay. On a formal level, however, what’s most significant about the use of anaphora is the way it provides an alternative ordering technique for Ginsberg’s extremely long lines. In more traditional verse, rhyme often serves as an ordering device, establishing groups of lines that together function as a unit of thought. However, Ginsberg uses anaphora instead of rhyme, and to rather different effect.

Wordplay

Despite the seriousness of “Howl,” Ginsberg brings a sense of exuberance to the poem through the use of puns and other kinds of wordplay. For instance, when the speaker refers to individuals “who bared their brains to Heaven under the El” (line 5), he’s talking about New York’s elevated railway trains, usually shortened to “the El.” Yet the word El is also one of the Hebrew words for “God.” Ginsberg’s pun on “El” establishes a link between the profane urban environment of New York City and the sacred realm of the divine. Hence the vision that concludes line 5, where we see “Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement rooftops.” For another example of wordplay, consider line 32:

who distributed Supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square weeping and undressing while the sirens of Los Alamos wailed them down, and wailed down Wall, and the Staten Island ferry also wailed

Here, Ginsberg inserts wordplay into a stressful vision of weeping and wailing. In context, the phrase “wailed down Wall” refers specifically to Wall Street, the famous financial district in New York. Yet the proximity of the words “wail” and “Wall” also playfully evokes the well-known Wailing Wall, which is a public site for lamentation in the city of Jerusalem. These and other examples of wordplay in the poem ultimately celebrate the qualities of creativity and imagination, the decay of which the poem otherwise mourns deeply.

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