White Buildings
Encyclopedia
The first collection of poetry by Hart Crane
, an American modernist poet critical to both lyrical and language
poetic traditions.
Featuring 'For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen,' Crane's much-loved love poem, the 'Voyages
' series, and some of his most famous lyrics--'My Grandmother's Love Letters' and 'Chaplinesque'--, Harold Bloom argues that this collection alone, if perhaps taken with his later lyric, 'The Broken Tower
,' could have secured Crane's reputation.
was happy to help Crane by writing a preface to White Buildings, but, increasingly frustrated with his failure to articulate an understanding of the poems, left it to Allen Tate
to finish. Reviewing the collection from the other side of the press, Edmund Wilson
fared little better, crediting Crane with a ‘remarkable style... almost something like a great style, if there could be such a thing as a great style... not, so far as one can see, applied to any subject at all.’ (Crane responded to these critical failures by calling Wilson’s article ‘half-baked,’ and declared that O’Neill had never had ‘the necessary nerve to write what his honesty demanded—a thoroughly and accurate appraisal of my work’.
Hart Crane
-Career:Throughout the early 1920s, small but well-respected literary magazines published some of Crane’s lyrics, gaining him, among the avant-garde, a respect that White Buildings , his first volume, ratified and strengthened...
, an American modernist poet critical to both lyrical and language
Language poets
The Language poets are an avant garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
poetic traditions.
Featuring 'For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen,' Crane's much-loved love poem, the 'Voyages
Voyages (poem)
Contained in Hart Crane's first collection of poems, White Buildings , 'Voyages' was composed across six years , with sections published as early as 1923. Containing one of Crane's most famous lyrics, 'Voyages: II,' this love-cycle of six poems was largely fueled by his love affair with Emil...
' series, and some of his most famous lyrics--'My Grandmother's Love Letters' and 'Chaplinesque'--, Harold Bloom argues that this collection alone, if perhaps taken with his later lyric, 'The Broken Tower
The Broken Tower
The last new poem meant to be published in Hart Crane's life, 'The Broken Tower' has been widely acknowledged as one of the best lyrics of Crane's last years, if not his career...
,' could have secured Crane's reputation.
Reception
Eugene O'NeillEugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
was happy to help Crane by writing a preface to White Buildings, but, increasingly frustrated with his failure to articulate an understanding of the poems, left it to Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
to finish. Reviewing the collection from the other side of the press, Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...
fared little better, crediting Crane with a ‘remarkable style... almost something like a great style, if there could be such a thing as a great style... not, so far as one can see, applied to any subject at all.’ (Crane responded to these critical failures by calling Wilson’s article ‘half-baked,’ and declared that O’Neill had never had ‘the necessary nerve to write what his honesty demanded—a thoroughly and accurate appraisal of my work’.