But that star-glistered salver of infinity,
The circle, blind crucible of endless space,
Is sluiced by motion, —subjugated never.
Adam and Adam’s answer in the forest
Left Hesperus mirrored in the lucid pool.
Now the eagle dominates our days, is jurist
Of the ambiguous cloud. We know the strident rule
Of wings imperious… Space, instantaneous,
Flickers a moment, consumes us in its smile:
A flash over the horizon—shifting gears—
And we have laughter, or more sudden tears.
Dream cancels dream in this new realm of fact
From which we wake into the dream of act;
Seeing himself an atom in a shroud—
Man hears himself an engine in a cloud!
The nasal whine of power whips a new universe…
Where spouting pillars spoor the evening sky,
Under the looming stacks of the gigantic power house
Stars prick the eyes with sharp ammoniac proverbs,
New verities, new inklings in the velvet hummed
Of dynamos, where hearing’s leash is strummed…
Stars scribble on our eyes the frosty sagas,
The gleaming cantos of unvanquished space…
O sinewy silver plane, nudging the wind’s withers!
What marathons new-set between the stars!
The soul, by naphtha fledged into new reaches
Already knows the closer clasp of Mars, —
New latitudes, unknotting, soon give place
To what fierce schedules, rife of doom apace!
And now, as launched in abysmal cupolas of space,
Toward endless terminals, Easters of speeding light—
Vast engines outward veering with seraphic grace
On clarion cylinders pass out of sight.
The circle, blind crucible of endless space,
Is sluiced by motion, —subjugated never.
Adam and Adam’s answer in the forest
Left Hesperus mirrored in the lucid pool.
Now the eagle dominates our days, is jurist
Of the ambiguous cloud. We know the strident rule
Of wings imperious… Space, instantaneous,
Flickers a moment, consumes us in its smile:
A flash over the horizon—shifting gears—
And we have laughter, or more sudden tears.
Dream cancels dream in this new realm of fact
From which we wake into the dream of act;
Seeing himself an atom in a shroud—
Man hears himself an engine in a cloud!
The nasal whine of power whips a new universe…
Where spouting pillars spoor the evening sky,
Under the looming stacks of the gigantic power house
Stars prick the eyes with sharp ammoniac proverbs,
New verities, new inklings in the velvet hummed
Of dynamos, where hearing’s leash is strummed…
Stars scribble on our eyes the frosty sagas,
The gleaming cantos of unvanquished space…
O sinewy silver plane, nudging the wind’s withers!
What marathons new-set between the stars!
The soul, by naphtha fledged into new reaches
Already knows the closer clasp of Mars, —
New latitudes, unknotting, soon give place
To what fierce schedules, rife of doom apace!
And now, as launched in abysmal cupolas of space,
Toward endless terminals, Easters of speeding light—
Vast engines outward veering with seraphic grace
On clarion cylinders pass out of sight.
Hart Crane 1920
But WTF does ... sorry, (coughs), what on Earth does it all mean?
ReplyDeleteI get the impression of the sky as an upturned bowl, lots (and lots and lots) of stars, and things flying ... but what does it all mean? Really, I'm too ill-educated to get modern poetry. I want to understand this: help me, please.
beats me! Hart Crane was referred to in James Tiptree Jr's short story 'Mother in the Sky with Diamonds' and cited as the first 'space poet'. Cape Hatteras is one of 15 poems comprising 'The Bridge' and appears here much edited!
ReplyDeleteSee: http://www.scribd.com/doc/37988774/Crane-Hart-The-Collected-Poems
Its the last stanza that gets me though..
Never read any Crane but I do like this. I love the line, Easters of speeding light. Unsure what it means but it suggests something holy. I also like the phrase 'what fierce schedules'. Simple language placed together in interesting ways is always enjoyable. Add in some unusual, almost Victorian, words like clarion and cupola and the result is fascinating. Like HG Wells etc, pure steampunk!
ReplyDeleteMust have been a sod to type out Wote!
ReplyDelete