Voyages VI

Harold Hart Crane 1899 (Garrettsville, Ohio) – 1932 (Gulf of Mexico)



Where icy and bright dungeons lift
Of swimmers their lost morning eyes,
And ocean rivers, churning, shift
Green borders under stranger skies,

Steadily as a shell secretes
Its beating leagues of monotone,
Or as many waters trough the sun's
Red kelson past the cape's wet stone;

0 rivers mingling toward the sky
And harbor of the phoenix' breast
My eyes pressed black against the prow,
-Thy derelict and blinded guest

Waiting, afire, what name, unspoken
I cannot claim: let thy waves rear
More savage than the death of kings,
Some splintered garland for the seer.

Beyond siroccos harvesting
The solstice thunders, crept away,
Like a cliff swinging or a sail
Flung into April's inmost day-

Creation's blithe and petalled word
To the lounged goddess when she rose
Conceding dialogue with eyes
That smile unsearchable repose-

Still fervid covenant, Belle Isle,
-Unfolded floating dais before
Which rainbows twine continual hair
Belle Isle, white echo of the oar!

The imaged Word, it is, that holds
Hushed willows anchored in its glow.
It is the unbetrayable reply
Whose accent no farewell can know.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

55 sec read
64

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB BCXC DEXE XXXX XFXF XGBG XHXH XIDI
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,101
Words 182
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Harold Hart Crane

Harold Hart Crane was an American poet. Finding both inspiration and provocation in the poetry of T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. In his most ambitious work, The Bridge, Crane sought to write an epic poem, in the vein of The Waste Land, that expressed a more optimistic view of modern, urban culture than the one that he found in Eliot's work. In the years following his suicide at the age of 32, Crane has been hailed by playwrights, poets, and literary critics alike (including Robert Lowell, Derek Walcott, Tennessee Williams, and Harold Bloom), as being one of the most influential poets of his generation.  more…

All Harold Hart Crane poems | Harold Hart Crane Books

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    Which of these famous poems is written in villanelle form?
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    B Funeral Blues
    C Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
    D Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night