More about Poem Analysis: 'The Broken Tower' by Hart Crane. A Broken Tower, by Hart Crane, is a metaphor-rich poem that is very ambiguous but seems to describe the difficulties of the creative process and the way in which the artist is bound and compelled by it. ‘The Broken Tower’ by Hart Crane describes one speaker’s transcendent quest to attain some measure of success and the frustrations he faces along the way. ‘The Broken Tower’ by Hart Crane is a highly ambiguous and somewhat obscure poem written in January of 1932. He was doubting his own creativity and talent. 15. ... Hart Crane : [Annoyed, rolls eyes] Whitman was queer. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. It's agreed this mysterious melodious poem (reminding me of Keats) is about a woman and love too (or looking for it or looking and not finding it trying to make it out of something new) (through destruction perhaps). -- ch. Hart Crane is my 2nd cousin. The Broken Tower by Harold Hart Crane - Famous poems, famous poets. To trace the visionary company of love, its voice, An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled). He is describing what it is like when his muse comes to him and brings him the ability to write successfully. These first lines make it clear he is unhappy with his current situation. Each of these quatrains follows a structured rhyming pattern of abab cdcd, and so on, alternating end sounds as the poet saw fit. The final quatrain fully removes the narrative from its dark original setting to one of peace and quiet. -or is it she, Whose sweet mortality stirs latent power?-. The poem begins with the speaker describing his descent from a tower. Crane’s time in Mexico was marked by disconcerting and dangerous experiences. By the end, he has come to the conclusion that he doesn’t need to worry about that. The third stanza gives the reader more details about the “music” in the speaker’s head. While Crane’s speaker seems to be describing a bell tower, he is actually looking deeper. The login page will open in a new tab. Williams felt a personal affinity Read Harold Hart Crane poem:The bell-rope that gathers God at dawn Dispatches me as though I dropped down the knell Of a spent day - to wander the cathedral lawn. The bells, I say, the bells break down their tower; And swing I know not where. 34 photos. The roustabouts. My grandmother(who was his cousin) had a lot of his writings and she gave them to my dad. The slaves. Join today for free! Dispatches me as though I dropped down the knell, Of a spent day – to wander the cathedral lawn. It should have some element of God in it. The earth itself will welcome the new structure and “lift love in its shower.” There is an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction at the end of ‘The Broken Tower’. Popular Essays. They sound around the plain like a drum waking up an army. The landscape is plain-like. The, the soldiers he nursed in the Civil War. The poem began with the speaker trying to understand whether his work had any value. “The Broken Tower” is one of a few poems where style and content seemed to work for me. There is also an extended question in the seventh stanza. He is able to move beyond his painful doubts and construct a new tower. He is describing his own writing as being like an “Oval encyclicals.” It is his job to get it out to as many different people as possible. Hart Crane is considered a pivotal even prophetic figure in American literature; he is often cast as a Romantic in the decades of high Modernism. And through whose pulse I hear, counting the strokes, My veins recall and add, revived and sure, What I hold healed, original now, and pure…. Although it is early in the day it already feels as if the day is “spent.” Perhaps it has gone to waste in some way. The speaker is fully aware of how difficult it is to find “love.” He has experience seeking out a muse for his own writing and knows the way the “wind” moves. And now out of nowhere, his biography of Hart Crane has now been made into a movie staring one of Hollywood's hottest young actors, who, by the way, is seeking a doctorate in English literature. The speaker is also given the opportunity to start over. The speaker’s new tower is healthier, quieter, and located near a lake. provided at no charge for educational purposes, Sonnet 116: 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds...'. His escape from the original tower provides him with a new outlet to understand his life. The “blood” he already had within him had no “answer” to his problems. He is wondering if there is any skill, beauty, or music, in what he has created in the past. The Broken Tower, among the last poems Hart Crane wrote, was written shortly before he took a boat from Mexico to Cuba. In the first stanza of ‘The Broken Tower’, the speaker begins by describing a bell tower. My word I poured. is taken from a Hart Crane poem titled “The Broken Tower.” Crane was one of Williams’s icons. This very ambiguous stanza adds up to meaning that the speaker is no longer going to be held down to one particular way of working or living. The Broken Tower Lyrics. Additionally, the pattern of rhythm alternates throughout. Homage to Crane's intent. Hart Crane’s poem ‘The Broken Tower’ (1932) is about—among whatever else you might cull from its depths— the overwhelming power of creative force. The film was made by Franco as his Masters thesis for his MFA in filmmaking from New York University. Banked voices slain! He wonders if “you” have “seen that corps / Of shadows in the tower.” There are dark places in the tower, or his mind, that he is unsure of. 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