SOURCE: “Allen Ginsberg's ‘Howl.’” In On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg, edited by Lewis Hyde, pp. 36-40. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984.

In the following essay, part of which was first published in 1957, Rumaker discusses “Howl.” This original material is accompanied by a 1983 updated comment by the critic.

The language of “Howl” is curiously “materialistic.” I mean it is quantitative (a quantity of verbiage) without reference to quality. I speak later of fever in this poem and I think it's that: the feelings are not precise (are an onrush of emotional bulk) and therefore the words, the language, cannot be precise. The abstractions of adjective and noun don't help to name the thing—to lock in the lines, precisely, what the poet means.

It's a “bad” poem—it's not said right. It should be said so that the impact of the anger slams in every line—a...