The Bridge (long poem)

"The Bridge", first published in 1930, is Hart Crane's first, and only, attempt at an American long poem. (Its primary status as either an epic or a series of lyrical poems remains contested; recent criticism tends to read it as a hybrid, perhaps indicative of a new genre, the 'modernist epic.' [See Daniel Gabriel's "Hart Crane and the Modernist Epic" (2007) ISBN 1403974454.] )

"The Bridge" was inspired by New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, which has appeared in the work of so many poets that Poets.org named it a "poetry landmark." [See [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5754 Poetry Landmark: The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City] ] Crane lived for some time at 110 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn, where he had an excellent view of the bridge; only after "The Bridge" was finished did Crane learn that one of its key builders, Washington Roebling, had once lived at the same address. [See Paul Mariani's "The Broken Tower: A Life of Hart Crane" (1999) ISBN 0393320413.]

Contents of "The Bridge"

"The Bridge" comprises 15 short poems, arranged as follows:

* Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge ["Proem" is not a misprint for "poem," but a word meaning roughly "prelude." [See [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proem Definition of "proem" from Merriam-Webster] ] ]
* Ave Maria
* Powhatan's Daughter [section title]
** The Harbor Dawn
** Van Winkle
** The River
** The Dance
** Indiana
* Cutty Sark
* Cape Hatteras
* Three Songs [section title]
** Southern Cross
** National Winter Garden
** Virginia
* Quaker Hill
* The Tunnel
* Atlantis

Critical reception

Reviewed on publication as a 'failure' even by Crane's closest literary friends—Allen Tate and Yvor Winters—"The Bridge" has nevertheless become, at least among writers, a best-loved poem.

Harold Bloom has made his share of loving defenses of the poem [See Bloom's 'Introduction' to Marc Simon's "The Complete Poems of Hart Crane" (2000) ISBN 0-87140-178-9.] , and the increasing number of monographs on Crane suggests a new movement in the criticism—if, that is, it is not merely indicative of that critical swell across modernist studies.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15444 Text of 'To Brooklyn Bridge' (the opening poem in "The Bridge") at Poets.org]
* [http://www.learner.org/catalog/extras/vvspot/Crane.html Video Interpretation of 'The River' (opening lines)]