Analysis of The Bridge: Cutty Sark
Harold Hart Crane 1899 (Garrettsville, Ohio) – 1932 (Gulf of Mexico)
I met a man in South Street, tall—
a nervous shark tooth swung on his chain.
His eyes pressed through green glass
—green glasses, or bar lights made them
so—
shine—
GREEN—
eyes—
stepped out—forgot to look at you
or left you several blocks away—
in the nickel-in-the-slot piano jogged
“Stamboul Nights”—weaving somebody’s nickel—sang—
O Stamboul Rose—dreams weave the rose!
Murmurs of Leviathan he spoke,
and rum was Plato in our heads . . .
“It’s S.S. Ala—Antwerp—now remember kid
to put me out at three she sails on time.
I’m not much good at time any more keep
weakeyed watches sometimes snooze—” his bony hands
got to beating time . . . “A whaler once—
I ought to keep time and get over it—I’m a
Democrat—I know what time it is—No
I don’t want to know what time it is—that
damned white Arctic killed my time . . . ”
O Stamboul Rose—drums weave—
“I ran a donkey engine down there on the Canal
in Panama—got tired of that—
then Yucatan selling kitchenware—beads—
have you seen Popocatepetl—birdless mouth
with ashes sifting down—?
and then the coast again . . . ”
Rose of Stamboul O coral Queen—
teased remnants of the skeletons of cities—
and galleries, galleries of watergutted lava
snarling stone—green—drums—drown—
Sing!
“—that spiracle!” he shot a finger out the door . . .
'O life’s a geyser—beautiful—my lungs—
No—I can’t live on land—!'
I saw the frontiers gleaming of his mind;
or are there frontiers—running sands sometimes
running sands—somewhere—sands running . . .
Or they may start some white machine that sings.
Then you may laugh and dance the axletree—
steel—silver—kick the traces—and know—
ATLANTIS ROSE drums wreathe the rose,
the star floats burning in a gulf of tears
and sleep another thousand—
interminably
long since somebody’s nickel—stopped—
playing—
A wind worried those wicker-neat lapels, the
swinging summer entrances to cooler hells . . .
Outside a wharf truck nearly ran him down
—he lunged up Bowery way while the dawn
was putting the Statue of Liberty out—that
torch of hers you know—
I started walking home across the Bridge . . .
Blithe Yankee vanities, turreted sprites, winged
British repartees, skil-
ful savage sea-girls
that bloomed in the spring—Heave, weave
those bright designs the trade winds drive . . .
Sweet opium and tea, Yo-ho!
Pennies for porpoises that bank the keel!
Fins whip the breeze around Japan!
Bright skysails ticketing the Line, wink round the Horn
to Frisco, Melbourne . . .
Pennants, parabolas—
clipper dreams indelible and ranging,
baronial white on lucky blue!
Thermopylae, Black Prince, Flying Cloud through Sunda
—scarfed of foam, their bellies veered green esplanades,
locked in wind-humors, ran their eastings down;
at Java Head freshened the nip
(sweet opium and tea!)
and turned and left us on the lee . . .
Buntlines tusseling (91 days, 20 hours and anchored!)
Rainbow, Leander
(last trip a tragedy)—where can you be
Nimbus? and you rivals two—
a long tack keeping—
Taeping?
Ariel?
Scheme | AXBXCXDXEX FG H XX XIXXXJCKI L XKXXMX DXJM NOXX XXNXOC HXX PXN JBMXKC X XAXLX CXX XXBNE FBM XPP XXPE NGX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 010111111 111111 11011111 1 1 1 1 11011111 11110101 00100010101 11101101 1111101 101010011 011100101 11101010101 1111111111 1111111011 1100111101 111010101 111110110110 101111111 1111111111 1110111 11111 1101010111001 01011011 11010101 111111 110101 010101 1111101 11010100110 01001001110 101111 1 1111010101 1101010011 111111 1100110111 1110110101 1011110 1111110111 11110101 110101001 01011101 0111000111 0101010 1000 111101 10 01101101010 10101001101 1101110111 1111001101 11001110011 11011 1101010101 110100111 1011 11011 1100111 11010111 11000111 1011001101 11010101 11100011101 11010 101 1010100010 111101 11110111 111110111 10111111 11011001 110001 01011101 11110010 1010 1101001111 1001101 01110 1 100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,736 |
Words | 475 |
Sentences | 59 |
Stanzas | 21 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 2, 1, 2, 9, 1, 6, 4, 4, 6, 3, 3, 6, 1, 5, 3, 5, 3, 3, 4, 3 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 109 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 134 Views
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"The Bridge: Cutty Sark" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/16827/the-bridge%3A-cutty-sark>.
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