The Bridge (poem)
The Bridge is a long poem by American author Hart Crane. The work was published for the first time in 1930.[1] It was intended by the poet to be a modern epic poem. The poem has fifteen parts. Many of them are about New York City.[2] The best-known part of the poem is its introductory part named To Brooklyn Bridge.[3] The Bridge is considered to be Hart Crane's most ambitious undertaking.[4] It is sometimes, however, called a failure, too.
Hart Crane is a modern poet. But in this poem he used[5] mostly iambic pentameter. This iambic pentameter is usually unrhymed (blank verse), but sometimes rhymed.
And Thee, across the harbor, silver paced
As though the sun took step of thee yet left
Some motion ever unspent in thy stride,—
Implicitly thy freedom staying thee![6]
Hart Crane is known for his attention to the sounds of language.[7] He used alliteration, rhymes and internal assonance.[8] The assonance, that is repeating of the same vowel, can be found in this strophe. The sound [i] occurs in many accented syllables in it.
How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest
The seagull’s wings shall dip and pivot him,
Shedding white rings of tumult, building high
Over the chained bay waters Liberty —[6]
Alliteration, that is repeating of the same consonant, should be noticed in the next strophe.
O harp and altar, of the fury fused,
(How could mere toil align thy choiring strings!)
Terrific threshold of the prophet’s pledge,
Prayer of pariah, and the lover’s cry,[6]
References
- ↑ Hart Crane (1899-1933)
- ↑ "Hart Crane: Biographical Sketch". Archived from the original on 2009-06-23. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
- ↑ "To Brooklyn Bridge. Introduction". Archived from the original on 2016-12-03. Retrieved 2016-12-07.
- ↑ Harold Bloom (ed.), Hart Crane, p. 75
- ↑ For National Poetry Month: Hart Crane’s “To Brooklyn Bridge” by Bryan Waterman
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "from The Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ↑ Sacvan Bercovitch, Cyrus R. K. Patell, The Cambridge History of American Literature: Volume 5, Poetry and Criticism p. 290.
- ↑ Edward Brunner, Splendid Failure: Hart Crane and the Making of The Bridge, p. 91.