Ginsberg Writing Event Prompts
Due in class 9/27 (Group 3 due 10/2)
Choose ONE of the following options. Your WE should be single-spaced,
should provide a word count (500 max), and should indicate which option
you understand yourself to be doing.
1. Identify 2-4 lines from Howl that seem to you to capture the poem’s purpose,
message, effect, etc. most fully, and give a rich explanation of your choice.
(Include the lines on your WE response, but they do not count toward your 500
words.)
2. William Carlos Williams said of Ginsberg, “[H]e proves to us . . . the spirit of
love survives to ennoble our lives if we have the wit and the courage and the
faith—and the art! to persist.” Discuss.
3. Ginsberg writes in the poem “America,” “It occurs to me that I am America.”
Support or refute this poetic claim, using Ginsberg’s portrait of America and your
own understanding of the nation for which Ginsberg is willing to put his “queer
shoulder to the wheel.”
4. Creative option: Write a poem of at least 15 lines beginning with the words “I saw
the best minds of my generation” and illustrating your mastery over Ginsberg’s
linear forms and style (syntax, sound, etc.). 500-word limit does not apply.
5. What the heck is up with the “Footnote to Howl”? Give me a deep consideration
of anything from its litany to its title and make sure to consider the relationship to
Howl itself.