I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves . . . at dawn looking for an angry fix, 
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night

The speaker opens with these three lines ((lines 1–3), which provide a kind of blueprint for the first section of the poem. If we break these lines down, they each center a different action or event. Whereas the first line concerns the destruction of the mind and the descent into madness, the second line describes people wandering through the streets, seeking drugs to satisfy their addiction. The third line then describes “angelheaded hipsters” on the search for some kind of mystical experience, though likely facilitated by hallucinogenic drugs. Taken each in their turn, these lines suggest a trio of figures that the speaker explicitly names much later in part 1: “the madman bum and angel” (line 76). These figures appear repeatedly throughout part 1, and they do so in numerous guises. In this regard, the madman, the bum, and the angel serve as archetypes for the different ways in which the best minds of the speaker’s generation have been destroyed. Conformity to mainstream culture and its restrictive moral values has had oppressive effects on many artists, intellectuals, and activists, degrading them and reducing them to one of these archetypes. Taken together, then, the madman, the bum, and the angel symbolize the decay of the American imagination.

   to recreate the syntax and measure of poor human prose and stand before you speechless and intelligent and shaking with shame, rejected yet confessing out the soul to conform to the rhythm of thought in his naked and endless head

This line appears near the end of part 1 (line 75). The first thing worth noting about the line is its deviation from the form taken by most other lines in this section of the poem. Whereas most lines in part 1 begin with the subordinating conjunction, “who,” this line begins with an infinitive verb, “to recreate.” This divergence from the regular form signals that we should pay special attention to what the line says. When read closely, it’s clear that this line breaks from the usual pattern of describing countercultural figures whose lives have been negatively impacted by the mainstreaming of American society. Instead, the speaker offers what we might describe as an ars poetica for “Howl” as a whole. Ars poetica is a Latin phrase that means “the art of poetry,” and it’s frequently used to describe how a particular poet approaches their work. In this case, the speaker offers an evocative description of the style of the poem we are currently reading. According to this description, the poem’s language aims to recreate the rhythms of ordinary thought that unfolds inside a person’s “naked and endless head.” This rhythm is characterized not by concise phrases but by an onrush of words.

   What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
   Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!

These lines ((lines 79–80) open part 2 of “Howl,” which centers on the evil figure of Moloch. In the passage quoted above, Moloch’s name appears as a response to the speaker’s opening question. The question articulated in the first line may be read as a direct response to part 1 of the poem. If part 1 outlined the many ways in which countercultural visionaries have been beaten down, part 2 begins by asking who—or what—is responsible for their degradation. The speaker’s answer is: “Moloch.” The text of the poem offers no direct explanation of Moloch’s identity. Instead, the speaker forces us readers to infer Moloch’s significance based on context clues. Here, the clues appear in the list of exclamations that directly follow Moloch’s name. That is to say, the power and significance of Moloch lies in all that is most reprehensible about postwar American life. Aside from general categories of repugnance like solitude, filth, and ugliness, the speaker points to poverty, child abuse, and militarism. These, among the other awful things outlined in part 2, constitute the symbolic significance of “Moloch” and demonstrate his malign influence on mid-century America.

   I’m with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma by our own souls’ airplanes roaring over the roof they’ve come to drop angelic bombs the hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse  O skinny legions run outside  O starry-spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is here  O victory forget your underwear we’re free
   I’m with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-journey on the highway across American in tears to the door of my cottage in the Western night

These lines ((lines 128–131) conclude the poem’s third and final part, in which the speaker directly addresses Ginsberg’s real-life friend, Carl Solomon. Ginsberg and Solomon met in 1949, when both were incarcerated in the Columbia Psychiatric Institute. At the time Ginsberg was writing “Howl,” Solomon was institutionalized again, this time at a psychiatric center in Rockland County, New York. This fact explains why each pair of lines in part 3 begins with the same phrase: “I’m with you in Rockland.” Through his repetition of this phrase, the speaker expresses a sense of camaraderie with Solomon. Rockland therefore symbolizes solidarity with all those who have gone mad or who have otherwise suffered under the oppressive mainstreaming of American society.  In the long passage quoted above, the speaker takes this expression of solidarity a step further by offering a two-part vision of liberation and reunion. The first pair of lines engages in a quasi-apocalyptic vision in which Rockland is bombed to ruins, allowing its “skinny legions” of inmates to rush forth to liberty. The second pair of lines follows up on this vision of liberty by imagining that Solomon has undergone some mystic “sea-journey on the highway across America” to reunite with Ginsberg in California.

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