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Because Ginsberg wrote “Howl” in free verse, the poem doesn’t follow a regular rhyme scheme. In fact, the poem doesn’t use any kind of rhyme. It’s true that internal rhymes do appear occasionally, but not frequently enough to make their presence significant. As for end rhyme, even if Ginsberg had used it, the sheer length of the lines would strain the ordinary reader’s capacity to “hear” it. So, rhyme doesn’t play a significant role in “Howl.” That said, Ginsberg does experiment with a technique that we might characterize as being the opposite of rhyme. That is, he uses a rhetorical technique known as anaphora, which involves the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a succession of clauses. Whereas rhyme traditionally serves as an ordering device in poetry, Ginsberg uses anaphora instead, thereby shifting attention from the end of the line to the beginning. 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.” In part 2, anaphora appears in the repeated opening declaration, “Moloch!” Finally, the anaphora in part 3 comes from the recurrent phrase, “I’m with you in Rockland.”

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