http://vmlinux.org/ilse/lit/crane.htm (In the Desert)
http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/blscranewar.htm (War is Kind)
Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1871 to a religious family. He was the 14th child of a Methodist minister and was named after an ancestor from the revolutionary war. He grew up to be an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. When Crane was growing up he wasn’t too interested in his schoolings at the university, but more so in the field of writing, so in turn he dropped out of school and decided to be a reporter and writer. Ever since Crane was younger he was a very brilliant child and had a strong interest in the way he could use and manipulate words. He was very independent in the way he thought and went about things.When Stephen Crane was three he taught himself to read and wrote letters for his father for his grandmother. When he turned four he was sneaking in around reading James Fennimore Cooper’s novel because his Methodist household was so strict. Stephen wrote his first poem at the age of six, started writing stories at eight, made his first known story at age 13, and even contributed the “York Tribune” at 16. Some of his works that he is most famous for happened when he was 22 when he published his first novel, “Maggie, Girl of the Streets,” which is considered the first work of American literary Naturalism. His second novel, “The Red Badge of Courage” won him an international acclaim. This was about the Civil War even though he wrote it without any Civil War experiences. This shows his strong interest in war. In 1896 Crane accepted the opportunity that was offered to him to be a war correspondent in the Spanish – American War. During his last years of life he lived in Europe with his wife and wrote about issues that he experienced in Greece and Cuba and in the mean time met and built friendships with other writers. Crane died of tuberculous in at the age of 28, but at this point death was no stranger to him. Throughout his life he witnessed five of his siblings die in childhood and his father, Jonathan Townley Crane die when he was only eleven years old.
Stephan Crane’s writings left an impression on the 20th century writers, especially the modernists and the imagists. He was an example of American Naturalism and Impressionism This means his writings were opposite of the Romanics, the time before his. The idea that his poems were based on heredity and environment supports this idea. Crane preferred his poems to be referred to as lines and said the purpose of his poems in his words was to "to give my ideas of life as a whole, so far as I know it.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Crane). In his poem In the Dessert there are many themes. The themes that appear to me are themes that involve being alone and isolated, fear, and relations with nature. These themes also seem to appear in his collection of versus along with In the Desert that makes up The Black Riders. His writing really make the reader think because they go smooth and have a single flow to them until one word is read multiple ways and gives the reader a double meaning to think about . In the Dessert along with the other poems can all be related and made into a whole, but not because of their flow, but because of the common themes travel through all of the parts. The meaning that I got out of In the Dessert was that man doesn’t control fate and whatever happens to him is what is meant to be and is controlled. The final result of things, whether they are big or small most of the time will not be happy go lucky, but rather cruel. According to Crane man must accept life as it is. Cranes writings were a little on the dark side which makes logical sense die to the fact that his past consisted a lot of deaths and war.
Crane uses a lot of metaphors and is able to paint very vivid image in the readers head. His poems were different from the standard poems of that time because they were done in free verse and didn’t contain titles. He tends to be dramatic in the sense that he enforces beliefs and opinions rather than feelings like mot poets do. In his poem In the Dessert there is a significant voice that directs when the specific action that happens. “In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, “is an example of this. His adjectives and description that is given are also important to his way of writing because it is what puts the twist to it all .For example the word bitter in this poem can be taken into consideration and have multiple meanings. If you take it as the environment of a dessert it might mean intense hostility, but if you consider it as a personality type of the bird it might mean strong and sharp. Also, if you take it literal as a food taste, it could mean an unpleasant taste, creating imagery. Narrative is the approach he takes on his poems only he adds the metaphors in to make it catchier. For example, the bird in the dessert with the bitter heart is the symbol for a man that is living life as a victim in a tough situation, but is excepting it.
Another poem that is written by Stephan Crane is War is Kind. This poem is again about one of his passions …war. It simply expresses the feelings of people as hurt and against war, but then his ideas of war turn theirs down and forces the reader to think about how we must be excepting of war and its purpose. This poem showed me another poem of Crows that had the same style as In the Dessert. Both were a little part of a bigger work that was tied in by theme and were written originally without titles. In this poem, what I liked best was how he repeated several times War is Kind to stress the message he was trying to get across. I noticed that this poem is more direct then In the Dessert.
The works of Stephan Crane can be considered American not only because they were written by an American poet, but because a lot of the content of them could be related back to war. In order to be where we are today in America, we needed to have are past. Our past wars are what developed us into who we are and made us the strong, powerful country we are today. His writings show first hand feelings, thoughts, and actual actions that happened during wars America has been in. These works connect directly to our history and can be considered references of the past.
In brief, Stephan Crow was a very powerful writer and although his pomes aren’t what made him the famous American writer that he is, if you read them, they are very catchy. Their meaning doesn’t jump right out at you, but instead are like a puzzle and makes you think and apply facts to gain the knowledge.
http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/blscranewar.htm (War is Kind)
Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1871 to a religious family. He was the 14th child of a Methodist minister and was named after an ancestor from the revolutionary war. He grew up to be an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. When Crane was growing up he wasn’t too interested in his schoolings at the university, but more so in the field of writing, so in turn he dropped out of school and decided to be a reporter and writer. Ever since Crane was younger he was a very brilliant child and had a strong interest in the way he could use and manipulate words. He was very independent in the way he thought and went about things.When Stephen Crane was three he taught himself to read and wrote letters for his father for his grandmother. When he turned four he was sneaking in around reading James Fennimore Cooper’s novel because his Methodist household was so strict. Stephen wrote his first poem at the age of six, started writing stories at eight, made his first known story at age 13, and even contributed the “York Tribune” at 16. Some of his works that he is most famous for happened when he was 22 when he published his first novel, “Maggie, Girl of the Streets,” which is considered the first work of American literary Naturalism. His second novel, “The Red Badge of Courage” won him an international acclaim. This was about the Civil War even though he wrote it without any Civil War experiences. This shows his strong interest in war. In 1896 Crane accepted the opportunity that was offered to him to be a war correspondent in the Spanish – American War. During his last years of life he lived in Europe with his wife and wrote about issues that he experienced in Greece and Cuba and in the mean time met and built friendships with other writers. Crane died of tuberculous in at the age of 28, but at this point death was no stranger to him. Throughout his life he witnessed five of his siblings die in childhood and his father, Jonathan Townley Crane die when he was only eleven years old.
Stephan Crane’s writings left an impression on the 20th century writers, especially the modernists and the imagists. He was an example of American Naturalism and Impressionism This means his writings were opposite of the Romanics, the time before his. The idea that his poems were based on heredity and environment supports this idea. Crane preferred his poems to be referred to as lines and said the purpose of his poems in his words was to "to give my ideas of life as a whole, so far as I know it.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Crane). In his poem In the Dessert there are many themes. The themes that appear to me are themes that involve being alone and isolated, fear, and relations with nature. These themes also seem to appear in his collection of versus along with In the Desert that makes up The Black Riders. His writing really make the reader think because they go smooth and have a single flow to them until one word is read multiple ways and gives the reader a double meaning to think about . In the Dessert along with the other poems can all be related and made into a whole, but not because of their flow, but because of the common themes travel through all of the parts. The meaning that I got out of In the Dessert was that man doesn’t control fate and whatever happens to him is what is meant to be and is controlled. The final result of things, whether they are big or small most of the time will not be happy go lucky, but rather cruel. According to Crane man must accept life as it is. Cranes writings were a little on the dark side which makes logical sense die to the fact that his past consisted a lot of deaths and war.
Crane uses a lot of metaphors and is able to paint very vivid image in the readers head. His poems were different from the standard poems of that time because they were done in free verse and didn’t contain titles. He tends to be dramatic in the sense that he enforces beliefs and opinions rather than feelings like mot poets do. In his poem In the Dessert there is a significant voice that directs when the specific action that happens. “In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, “is an example of this. His adjectives and description that is given are also important to his way of writing because it is what puts the twist to it all .For example the word bitter in this poem can be taken into consideration and have multiple meanings. If you take it as the environment of a dessert it might mean intense hostility, but if you consider it as a personality type of the bird it might mean strong and sharp. Also, if you take it literal as a food taste, it could mean an unpleasant taste, creating imagery. Narrative is the approach he takes on his poems only he adds the metaphors in to make it catchier. For example, the bird in the dessert with the bitter heart is the symbol for a man that is living life as a victim in a tough situation, but is excepting it.
Another poem that is written by Stephan Crane is War is Kind. This poem is again about one of his passions …war. It simply expresses the feelings of people as hurt and against war, but then his ideas of war turn theirs down and forces the reader to think about how we must be excepting of war and its purpose. This poem showed me another poem of Crows that had the same style as In the Dessert. Both were a little part of a bigger work that was tied in by theme and were written originally without titles. In this poem, what I liked best was how he repeated several times War is Kind to stress the message he was trying to get across. I noticed that this poem is more direct then In the Dessert.
The works of Stephan Crane can be considered American not only because they were written by an American poet, but because a lot of the content of them could be related back to war. In order to be where we are today in America, we needed to have are past. Our past wars are what developed us into who we are and made us the strong, powerful country we are today. His writings show first hand feelings, thoughts, and actual actions that happened during wars America has been in. These works connect directly to our history and can be considered references of the past.
In brief, Stephan Crow was a very powerful writer and although his pomes aren’t what made him the famous American writer that he is, if you read them, they are very catchy. Their meaning doesn’t jump right out at you, but instead are like a puzzle and makes you think and apply facts to gain the knowledge.
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