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His first four years in New York were very productive: he finished his sequence Voyages and in 1926 published his first collection of poetry, entitled White Buildings. Ten of the fifteen poems that constitute his long work The Bridge were also completed during this period. Though he worked occasionally, he was supported primarily by friends and family, in particular a banker named Otto Kahn, who became something of a patron.
Crane thought of himself as a visionary in the tradition of the celebratory optimism of Walt Whitman. Crane was interested in the methods of modernism, but did not share completely the modernist pessimism about the state of the contemporary world. Rather than bemoan the loss of a time past, Crane’s work sought affirmation and hope in the fabric of everyday life. In The Bridge, Crane employs the Brooklyn Bridge as a symbol to suggest the unifying potential of the modern world: the bridge links far-flung reaches of the United States in a celebration of the possibilities of America and its people. Published in 1930, the poem did not receive favorable reviews from critics. It won an award from Poetry magazine, however, and Crane received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation that year as well. Nonetheless, Crane was uncertain about his career in literature, and on his return from Mexico, where he had been working on another book, he jumped from the ship and drowned.
[6287] Frank Pearsall, Walt Whitman, half-length portrait, seated, facing left, left hand under chin (1869),
courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-89947].
Modernist poet Hart Crane considered himself an artist in Whitman’s tradition of optimism and exuberance. Both tried to represent the vastness of America in life and modernity.
[6548] A. E. Marey, Going to See Chaplin (1920),
courtesy of the Gazette du Bon Ton.
Line outside theater in Paris. Technology made movies available to mass audiences and facilitated popular culture, which often crossed national boundaries. Hart Crane’s poem “Chaplinesque” referenced Charlie Chaplin, a popular comic actor.
[7194] Samuel H. Gottscho, New York City Views. Financial District, framed by Brooklyn Bridge,
courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-G612-T01-21249].
Hart Crane used the Brooklyn Bridge to represent modernization’s unifying potential, while some authors perceived technology and urbanization to be fragmenting.
[7656] Anonymous, Charlie Chaplin in The Vagabond (1916),
courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USZC4-6636].
In his poem “Chaplinesque,” Hart Crane explored Chaplin’s comic grace.