"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg Close Reading Chart

	Examples from Text	Analysis
Linguistic	“Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness!” (Ginsberg 3) “Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows!” (Ginsberg 7-8) “the wild eyes! the holy yells! They bad farewell! They jumped off the roof! to solitude! (Ginsberg 34)	Appositives characterize Moloch as all the following phrases, clearly can derive a negative connotation around this figure. The contrast between a jailhouse and a Congress shows irony; jailhouse symbolizes caged bird, Congress symbolizes free eagle. The reference to suicide in the lines connects Moloch’s actions with those of mankind, as both seem to strive to end the human race in turmoil.
Semantic	“Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo!” (Ginsberg 10-12) “Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks!” (Ginsberg 16)	The personification of Moloch is almost in a reversed style; rather than say that the machinery of Moloch is its mind, its already assumed that Moloch has a mind and blood and fingers—the humanistic imagery to describe Moloch falls in line with the idea that Moloch and mankind are one in the same.
Structural	“Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies! gone down the American river! Dreams! adorations! illuminations! religions!” (Ginsberg 29)	Each exclamatory remark serves as a point of emphasis for the word directly before it, which means that every single phrase within this section is emphasized. This creates an almost panicked air, almost imagine a public speaker screaming at the audience as a call to action.
Cultural	“Moloch! Robot apartments! invisible suburbs! skeleton treasuries! blind capitals! demonic industries! spectral nations! invincible madhouses!” (Ginsberg 24-25)	The contrast between the familiar nouns and the unfamiliar adjectives serves to characterize that what we believe industrialization to be—comfortable—is not what it is at all. Rather, it should be viewed as a dangerous, alien force with the potential to bring about man’s ruination.