The Reception of "Howl"

In 1955, when Allen Ginsberg first read "Howl" at the 6 Gallery in San Francisco, many of the poets and friends who were there to listen undoubtedly realized that they were witnessing a significant event. (Ginsberg's close friend, Jack Kerouac, punctuated the ends of Ginsberg's lines, shouting, "Go, go," and Kenneth Rexroth, the evening's master of ceremonies, wept.) Remembering the evening, Michael McClure writes, "Ginsberg read on to the end of the poem, which left us standing in wonder, or cheering and wondering, but knowing at the deepest level that a barrier had been broken, that a human voice and body had been hurled against the harsh wall of America and its supporting armies and navies and academies and institutions and ownership systems and power-support bases." (citation)

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