Author Spotlight
THE VISIBLE THE UNTRUE (to E.O.) – an unfinished poem by HART CRANE
the terrible puppet of my dreams, shall
lavish this on you–
the dense mine of the orchid, split in two.
And the fingernails that cinch such
environs?
And what about the staunch neighbor tabulations
with all their zest and doom?
.
I’m wearing badges
that cancel all your kindness. Forthright
I watch the silver Zeppelin
destroy the sky. To
stir your confidence?
To rouse what sanctions–? toothaches?
.
The silver strophe . . . the canto
bright with myth . . . Such
distances leap landward without
evil smile. And, as for me . . .
.
The window weight throbs in its blind
partition. To extinguish what I have of faith.
Yes, light. And it is always
always, always the eternal rainbow
And it is always the day, the farewell day unkind.
+
from The Complete Poems of Hart Crane, centennial edition, ed. Marc Simon, introduced by Harold Bloom. New Yorkers, you can have one for seven dollars at The Strand.
Tags: Hart Crane, The Visible the Untrue
Just to add some context: the “E.O.” of the book’s title is undoubtedly the great love of Crane’s life, Emil Opffer, Jr., a Dutch-born merchant seaman. It was through Opffer’s father, editor of a Brooklyn-based anarchist newspaper for Dutch émigrés, that Crane came to live in a room at 110 Columbia Heights, in Brooklyn Heights, that offered a direct view of the Brooklyn Bridge. Within six years or so, he published “The Bridge.” Although Crane did not know it until later, the building had been home to Washington Roebling, who oversaw the construction of the bridge following the death of his father, the original designer, in an accident during construction. Inquiring minds can read all about it in my book Literary Brooklyn, due out from Henry Holt in 2011…
Just to add some context: the “E.O.” of the book’s title is undoubtedly the great love of Crane’s life, Emil Opffer, Jr., a Dutch-born merchant seaman. It was through Opffer’s father, editor of a Brooklyn-based anarchist newspaper for Dutch émigrés, that Crane came to live in a room at 110 Columbia Heights, in Brooklyn Heights, that offered a direct view of the Brooklyn Bridge. Within six years or so, he published “The Bridge.” Although Crane did not know it until later, the building had been home to Washington Roebling, who oversaw the construction of the bridge following the death of his father, the original designer, in an accident during construction. Inquiring minds can read all about it in my book Literary Brooklyn, due out from Henry Holt in 2011…
man i haven’t read much hart crane but after reading this poem i am reading the fuck out of his collected poems as soon as possible.
so thx for this post
I love that Complete Poems. Paperback, easy to read, small enough to carry around with you and, I don’t know, it just somehow seems friendlier than most collected poems. One of my favorite books.
i wrote an essay involving hart crane and the bridge and some other stuff in the first issue of my first zine if anyone wants to read it: http://issuu.com/reynard/docs/candyncigarettes?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=19
i’m going to go to a bar now because it’s saturday and it seems like i should do things like that on saturday, right? right.
i just remembered there’s a terrible story i wrote that i wish i wouldn’t have published in that issue. oh gawd now i’m really going to get drunk.
man i haven’t read much hart crane but after reading this poem i am reading the fuck out of his collected poems as soon as possible.
so thx for this post
I love that Complete Poems. Paperback, easy to read, small enough to carry around with you and, I don’t know, it just somehow seems friendlier than most collected poems. One of my favorite books.
i wrote an essay involving hart crane and the bridge and some other stuff in the first issue of my first zine if anyone wants to read it: http://issuu.com/reynard/docs/candyncigarettes?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=19
i’m going to go to a bar now because it’s saturday and it seems like i should do things like that on saturday, right? right.
i just remembered there’s a terrible story i wrote that i wish i wouldn’t have published in that issue. oh gawd now i’m really going to get drunk.
Am incomplete poem in the complete poems.
Funny how we drops do many questions, a thing people criticize contemporary poets for, as a device.
It all has been, will be. Most things in poetry aren’t so new (not that Crane is so old).
Am incomplete poem in the complete poems.
Funny how we drops do many questions, a thing people criticize contemporary poets for, as a device.
It all has been, will be. Most things in poetry aren’t so new (not that Crane is so old).