Theme

beat

1 poem

Howl

“Howl” is usually called a raw explosion of rage — but it’s carefully built, moving from the destroyed “best minds” to the machine-god Moloch to a vow of love for the institutionalized friend in “Rockland,” and finally to blessing. Its radical claim: the people society calls mad are its real visionaries — and the obscenity trial it provoked was its thesis tested in court.