I am sorry, but I never got it. This was during my youth also, but I thought it generally stunk. I guess I just wasn't hip.

"Howl" is worthy of 5 stars,easily-but unfortunately much of his work is lacking on several fronts.He seemed to purposely try to shock people,which is a cheap tactic.Also,on audio recordings,his delivery is often quite abrasive.

Whining,childish,anti-West,acid-head,fourth-rate "poet",NAMBLA member,bastard.

I would give him 1 star but I gave him an extra for originality. From reading this poetry, it seems as if this guy is a real whiner, complaining about things that really don't affect him at the time.

did ginsberg pick up the torch where Whitman left off? in a way. Ginsberg certainly took his style from a mixture of Whitman's long breaths(a style not being incorporated much in post-WW2 poetry) and rhythms, as well as a page from his buddy Jack's book on the spontaneous. where i think Ginsberg fails to become as universal is due to his obsessive desire to shock audiences w/vulgar language and the constant references to his homosexuality. a shame b/c if not for that, Allen Ginsberg's work as a poet of social consequence might be looked upon in college MFA clases more so than the banal self-involved poetry that exists now.

Howl measures up to any modern poetry written by anyone.

The early poems were breakthroughs: "Howl," "Supermarket in California," "Kaddish," but the later work doesn't measure up. His greatest contribution was perhaps his championing of and influence on the other writers of his conclave: Kerouac, Burroughs, Corso, Snyder. "Howl" is a truly tremendous work, one of the finest poems written in English in the 20th century.

holy saint of new american thought!