Let me preface this by saying that I am not that familiar with Ginsberg and the beat movement. Poetry has never been my thing. I find reading poetry difficult unless you read it aloud. Poetry seems to be a format that begs to be spoken aloud and can hide its depths if you just read the words on a page. So I read Howl aloud and felt moved it. I didn't get all the references, but I don't think I had to. I could hear the pain and the frustration and the desire to howl in the words.