"Tell brave deeds of war."

 Then they recounted tales, --
 "There were stern stands
 And bitter runs for glory."

 Ah, I think there were braver deeds.

(Black Riders XV)

I’ve read a number of war poems, good, bad and indifferent, but nothing quite like today’s quietly understated piece. There is a certain quality to Crane’s work; not quite ‘originality’, for the sentiment is not a new one, but rather distinctiveness - not so much what the poem says as how it says it.

As in many of his other poems, Crane manages to say a lot in surprisingly few words; nor is it, as with some other poets, a matter of layering meanings and imagery, or of ‘making every word count’. With Crane, it seems to be more a matter of finding precisely the right thing to say, and then saying it as simply and economically¹ as possible - a technique that sounds simple enough in theory, but whose difficulty is actually concealed by the ease with which Crane accomplishes it.

Links

poem #196 has a biography and a more extensive discussion of crane’s poetry.

poem #253 is one of my favourite verses from The Black Riders

And http://geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems/crane02.html contains the complete text of The Black Riders and Other Lines, of which today’s poem is but stanza XV.

— Martin