by Allen Ginsberg

Section I, Lines 36-40 Summary


Line 36


  • They had sex with bikers and loved it.
  • We've already seen how several unusual types of people have been compared to saints, angels, and other holy figures, and here the motorcyclists are called "saintly." Ginsberg used religious language in new and unexpected contexts, which he hoped would make people reconsider traditional ideas.
  • By the way, this is one of the lines that caught the attention of government censors and led to the famous trial involving Howl.

Line 37


  • In addition to sex with motorcyclists, they also exchanged oral sex with sailors on leave.
  • As in line 35, this line combines religious language ("seraphim" are an order of angels) with blunt descriptions of sexuality. This line was also cited in the censorship trial.

Line 38


  • They had anonymous sex with strangers in public gardens and parks.
  • Before homosexuality acquired wider acceptance in society, gay men sometimes found partners in certain remote public areas within places such as parks.

Line 39


  • A "Turkish Bath" is another place where men sometimes had anonymous sexual encounters with one another.
  • The "best minds" were trying to laugh but ended up with a sob instead.
  • And "sword" is a phallic reference.

Line 40


  • The speaker is talking about how the three ways in which they lost their gay lovers. The "three old shrews of fate" is an allusion to the Three Fates, mythological goddesses who decided when a person's life would end by cutting a thread.
  • The speaker is suggesting that the men lost their "loveboys" to metaphorical women. Strangely, these women have "one eye," which suggests phallic imagery.
  • The first such shrew is the "heterosexual dollar," which probably means that the boys gave up being gay for the sake of their careers.
  • The second "winks of out of the womb," which probably means that the men got their girlfriends pregnant.
  • The third sounds like a parody of a wife who "does nothing but sit on her ass." As in, the boys got married and had to give up their male lovers. She may be an allusion to Penelope, the wife of Odysseus in the The Odyssey, who spent a lot of time sewing at her loom. But, of course, the "threads" also refer back to the idea of death and the Fates.

Next Page: Section I, Lines 41-45
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