Jack's post on Howl.

"I found 'Howl' to be an interesting but often uncomfortable read. Prolonged text on torture, and vile abuse is prevalent, and the bitterness of the poet is obvious within each line. There is continual references to the world around us which is also fairly shocking. The repetition of 'who' which more often than not starts each verse, adds a 'ongoing' sense of a single figure to represent many, and many who 'suffered'. Suffering is a common element, but the poem creates a sense of irony in that often than not, those who suffered are the intellectual and educated, who 'studied'. I found 'Howl' a fairly hard read, even the name 'Howl' itself, such a simple word, provides many connotations. A 'howl' is like a continual suffering, or at least representative of it. The degree of 'explicitness' shows the intention to shock, crude and 'vulgar' language punctuates throughout the text and the description of 'acts' a perverted nature is vividly created."