A Formalist Point of View

"The Formalist focus was on the qualities of poetic language that distinguish it from ordinary practical language" (pg. 4).

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix" ( pg. 2698)

Question: If we were only able to look at the words within the poem/work itself, what would we lose by not digging deeper into the poems history and/or the reason as to why the poem exists in the first place?

         When looking at the first quote, my thought was "Shakespeare", whom always took words that seemed outlandish, and then combined them together to create a flow of poetry that still confuses the highest of scholars.  But when I look at the reading of "Howl", it isn't the flow that stands out to me or the "qualities of poetic language",  but the abrasiveness of the poem by using the most ordinary words.  But because the words are ordinary does not mean that they aren't still poetic or "practical", quite the opposite.  It makes you ask questions, seek answers within the poem itself, and make you realize the anger that resonates through out.  Because of this, it makes the poem deeper, a buffet for the Formalist mind.
         Instead of pretty words, you have rash words that stand out angrily against the page, put together in poetic form.  In the quote above, the commas create a pause that makes the words "madness" and "naked" linger on the tongue.  The second line long like the smoke from a cigarette burning as he states a sad tale of the best minds.  Throughout the entire poem, he takes beautiful yet haunting tales anywhere from the ancient greeks, to hebrew paired with the most abrasive language such as "cunt" and "cock and endless balls".  This can easily be translated into a close reading because of the dialogue, but because of his use of historical tales, can be interpreted into much more.