Hart Crane

Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet, best known for his only long poem, ''The Bridge''. Inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote highly stylized modernist poetry, often noted for its complexity. He published poems in various literary magazines throughout his life, as well as two collections: ''White Buildings'' (1926) and ''The Bridge'' (1930). ''White Buildings'' helped to cement his place in the avant-garde literary scene of the time. In ''The Bridge'', he tried to write an epic poem in the style of ''The Waste Land'', that expressed a more optimistic view of modern, urban culture than the one that he found in Eliot's work. ''The Broken Tower'' (1932) was meant to be his last published poem. However, it only appeared in print following his death.

Crane was born in Garrettsville, Ohio, to Clarence A. Crane and Grace Edna Hart. He dropped out of East High School in Cleveland during his junior year and left for New York City, promising his parents he would later attend Columbia University. Crane took various jobs, including in copywriting and advertising. Throughout the early 1920s, various small but well-respected literary magazines published some of Crane's poems, gaining him among the avant-garde a respect that ''White Buildings'' ratified and strengthened. His ambition to synthesize America was expressed in ''The Bridge'' (1930), intended to be an uplifting counter to Eliot's ''The Waste Land''. Initial critical reaction to it was mixed, with many praising the scope but criticizing the quality of the poems. On April 27, 1932, Crane, in an inebriated state, jumped off the steamship USS ''Orizaba'' and into the Gulf of Mexico while the ship was en route to New York. He left no suicide note, but witnesses believed his intentions to be suicidal. Throughout his life, he had multiple homosexual relations, many of which were described by, or otherwise influenced, his poetry. He had one known female partner, Peggy Cowley, around a year before his death.

Contemporary opinion was mixed, with poets including Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens criticizing his work and others, including William Carlos Williams and E. E. Cummings, praising it. Posthumously, Crane has been praised by several playwrights, poets, and literary critics (including Robert Lowell, Derek Walcott, Tennessee Williams, and Harold Bloom). Provided by Wikipedia