Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Hart Crane: to capture the spirit of the modern world

At Melville’s Tomb, Repose of Rivers

  • At Melville’s Tomb
  • Often beneath the wave, wide from this ledge 
  • The dice of drowned men’s bones he saw bequeath 
  • An embassy. Their numbers as he watched, 
  • Beat on the dusty shore and were obscured.
  • And wrecks passed without sound of bells, 
  • The calyx of death’s bounty giving back 
  • A scattered chapter, livid hieroglyph, 
  • The portent wound in corridors of shells.
  • Then in the circuit calm of one vast coil, 
  • Its lashings charmed and malice reconciled, 
  • Frosted eyes there were that lifted altars; 
  • And silent answers crept across the stars.
  • Compass, quadrant and sextant contrive 
  • No farther tides . . . High in the azure steeps 
  • Monody shall not wake the mariner. 
  • This fabulous shadow only the sea keeps.
  • Repose of Rivers
  • The willows carried a slow sound, 
  • A sarabande the wind mowed on the mead. 
  • I could never remember 
  • That seething, steady leveling of the marshes 
  • Till age had brought me to the sea.
  • Flags, weeds. And remembrance of steep alcoves 
  • Where cypresses shared the noon’s 
  • Tyranny; they drew me into hades almost. 
  • And mammoth turtles climbing sulphur dreams 
  • Yielded, while sun-silt rippled them 
  • Asunder ...
  • How much I would have bartered! the black gorge 
  • And all the singular nestings in the hills 
  • Where beavers learn stitch and tooth. 
  • The pond I entered once and quickly fled— 
  • I remember now its singing willow rim.
  • And finally, in that memory all things nurse; 
  • After the city that I finally passed 
  • With scalding unguents spread and smoking darts 
  • The monsoon cut across the delta 
  • At gulf gates ... There, beyond the dykes
  • I heard wind flaking sapphire, like this summer,
  • And willows could not hold more steady sound.
Hart Crane

Harold Hart Crane (1899-1932) was an early 20th-century American poet of the second generation after T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound had reshaped the poetic landscape with the birth of the Modernist movement in literature. His poetry is marked by a high style and often obscure yet beautiful phrasings. Like Eliot, Crane sought to capture the spirit of the modern world, a task he most ambitiously realized in his long poem about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Bridge. Plagued by alcoholism and frustrated by his homosexuality, Crane disappeared on a ship sailing the Atlantic Ocean; it is presumed he committed suicide.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
Next Article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
  • At Melville’s Tomb
  • Often beneath the wave, wide from this ledge 
  • The dice of drowned men’s bones he saw bequeath 
  • An embassy. Their numbers as he watched, 
  • Beat on the dusty shore and were obscured.
  • And wrecks passed without sound of bells, 
  • The calyx of death’s bounty giving back 
  • A scattered chapter, livid hieroglyph, 
  • The portent wound in corridors of shells.
  • Then in the circuit calm of one vast coil, 
  • Its lashings charmed and malice reconciled, 
  • Frosted eyes there were that lifted altars; 
  • And silent answers crept across the stars.
  • Compass, quadrant and sextant contrive 
  • No farther tides . . . High in the azure steeps 
  • Monody shall not wake the mariner. 
  • This fabulous shadow only the sea keeps.
  • Repose of Rivers
  • The willows carried a slow sound, 
  • A sarabande the wind mowed on the mead. 
  • I could never remember 
  • That seething, steady leveling of the marshes 
  • Till age had brought me to the sea.
  • Flags, weeds. And remembrance of steep alcoves 
  • Where cypresses shared the noon’s 
  • Tyranny; they drew me into hades almost. 
  • And mammoth turtles climbing sulphur dreams 
  • Yielded, while sun-silt rippled them 
  • Asunder ...
  • How much I would have bartered! the black gorge 
  • And all the singular nestings in the hills 
  • Where beavers learn stitch and tooth. 
  • The pond I entered once and quickly fled— 
  • I remember now its singing willow rim.
  • And finally, in that memory all things nurse; 
  • After the city that I finally passed 
  • With scalding unguents spread and smoking darts 
  • The monsoon cut across the delta 
  • At gulf gates ... There, beyond the dykes
  • I heard wind flaking sapphire, like this summer,
  • And willows could not hold more steady sound.
Hart Crane

Harold Hart Crane (1899-1932) was an early 20th-century American poet of the second generation after T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound had reshaped the poetic landscape with the birth of the Modernist movement in literature. His poetry is marked by a high style and often obscure yet beautiful phrasings. Like Eliot, Crane sought to capture the spirit of the modern world, a task he most ambitiously realized in his long poem about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Bridge. Plagued by alcoholism and frustrated by his homosexuality, Crane disappeared on a ship sailing the Atlantic Ocean; it is presumed he committed suicide.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Trump names local supporter new Border Czar

Another Brick (Suit) in the Wall
Next Article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader