On Reading Howl for Carl Solomon

I'm reading Howl again. I'm only starting to realize what a great poem this is. I've read it so much this year I'm beginning to see what a huge poem it is. I've just finished reading it again, and it was like passing through somewhere I've been before and seeing things I didn't notice before and it's like "Oh, I don't remember you." Mind you, Howl is generally about madness and a soulless materialist society that leaves no room for dreamers such as Ginsberg so it's not exactly a friendly reunion, but the sheer immensity of Ginsberg's vision is intimidating.

The subject of my essay is going to be poetic speaker in Allen Ginsberg's poetry. This is interesting because the poetic speaker is, at least on the literary level, Allen Ginsberg. This appears to be something very common with the Beats, especially Kerouac. I just realized that I told you all about this. Oh well, that's about all that's happened in my life, at least dealing with my essay.

CONTINUATION

I just realized that I have more to talk about. While reading Howl again I realized, along with how immense Howl is, how little time we spent looking at it in class. I mean, it basically a class and a half and I didn't really wholley agree with my professor's interpretation, which was that Howl was something to do with the oppression of youth. Well, it is, but that's not how I would put it. Yes, this deals with the oppression of the young by the old, but there is also the aspect of a spiritual void. I need to check if Howl was written after Ginsberg's Blake vision, because Allen Ginsberg's status as a modern prophet is something I'd like to explore.