Analysis of Forgetfulness

Harold Hart Crane 1899 (Garrettsville, Ohio) – 1932 (Gulf of Mexico)



Forgetfulness is like a song
That, freed from beat and measure, wanders.
Forgetfulness is like a bird whose wings are reconciled,
Outspread and motionless, --
A bird that coasts the wind unwearyingly.

Forgetfulness is rain at night,
Or an old house in a forest, -- or a child.
Forgetfulness is white, -- white as a blasted tree,
And it may stun the sybil into prophecy,
Or bury the Gods.

I can remember much forgetfulness.


Scheme XABXX XBCCX A
Poetic Form
Metre 11101 111101010 1110111110 10100 0111011 11111 11110010101 111110101 011101001100 11001 1101011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 430
Words 76
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 1
Lines Amount 11
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 110
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

22 sec read
153

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…

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