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!

      Perennial-Cutty-trophied-Sark!

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?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

2:22 min read
134

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBXCXDXEX FG H XX XIXXXJCKI L XKXXMX DXJM NOXX XXNXOC HXX PXN JBMXKC X XAXLX CXX XXBNE FBM XPP XXPE NGX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 3,736
Words 475
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

Harold Hart Crane

Harold Hart Crane was an American poet. Finding both inspiration and provocation in the poetry of T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. In his most ambitious work, The Bridge, Crane sought to write an epic poem, in the vein of The Waste Land, that expressed a more optimistic view of modern, urban culture than the one that he found in Eliot's work. In the years following his suicide at the age of 32, Crane has been hailed by playwrights, poets, and literary critics alike (including Robert Lowell, Derek Walcott, Tennessee Williams, and Harold Bloom), as being one of the most influential poets of his generation.  more…

All Harold Hart Crane poems | Harold Hart Crane Books

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