Hart Crane

I chose the Rip Van Winkle section from The Bridge for no real good reason. It's sad when a poet has to write copious notes about his own work to make it understandable. I found Walt Whitman's description of America much easier to follow. Rip Van Winkle carries happy childhood memories for me, so I risked having it ruined. But the mention of hurrying off to school with Pizarro and Cortes reminded me of my sister's favorite school poem: "Where we walk to school each day/Indian children used to play." And we are off on a time travel into Crane's past where lilacs provide a switch for his father to whip him and he recalls a fleeting smile from his mother that was never shared with him. Yikes! The Catskill daisy chain in May that is now Broadway was nice. Bits of this make you think Crane has potential, but wading through the whole of The Bridge is just too much of it.

Note of shameless self-promotion: My husband's last cd, Back In the Day, used Rip van Winkle as a theme. Buy it here!