American Literature / Unit 14 AML 1335 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Hart Crane and *The Bridge*
Captions available
The idea
Crane set out to answer The Waste Land with an affirmative long poem, taking the Brooklyn Bridge as the emblem of an American continuity. Its proem addresses the bridge as a harp and altar, and the language is deliberately ecstatic where Eliot's is dry.
In practice
A bridge, addressed as harp and altar.
Where people slip
The poem is written against Eliot's despair.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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