Hart Crane
Comments & Themes
Hart Crane (1899-1932)
- In poetry at least, isn't it worth trying the impossible? Isn't it better to fall short of the great American epic than to succeed in petty poetry of a more pedestrian sort?
- Address AMBITION in different Modernist American poets. Can lack of it be a serious obstacle for a poet's literary reputation? Compare for example Crane and cummings.
- On the other hand, can ambition alone sustain a poem? And a poet?
- Intellect and emotion are often at odds in poetry. Think of poets who have successfully reconciled them. Is it necessary at all to do so? Is it worth trying at all?
- Assess Crane as America's poet maudit in the symbolist tradition. Can the combination of emotional instability, alternative sexuality, and alcohol produce better poetry than the bourgeois life of a New Jersey doctor?
- Optimism and technology seem to go together in Crane. Study the contrast with Eliot.
- Discuss Crane's logic of metaphor. Should a poet always make sense in a conventional way? Can the price paid for certain powerful imagery compromise meaning?
- Address OBSCURITY in different Modernist American poets. Can lack of it be a serious obstacle for a poet's literary reputation? Compare for example Crane and Moore.