Stephen Crane

For other notable men with this name see: Stephen Crane (disambiguation).

Poems

Stephen Crane published two volumes of poetry:

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• The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895)
• War is Kind and Other Lines (1899)

His poems are short, untitled, unrhymed, unmetrical, and mysterious, almost koan-like. Rather than try to describe them, exhibited are two of his most famous:

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:In the desert

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:I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

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:who, squatting upon the ground,

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:Held his heart in his hands,

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:And ate of it.

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:I said, "Is it good, friend?"

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:"It is bitter—bitter," he answered;

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:"But I like it

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:Because it is bitter,

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:And because it is my heart."

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::("The Black Riders and Other Lines," III)

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:A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;

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:He climbed for it,

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:And eventually he achieved it --

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:It was clay.

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:Now this is the strange part:

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:When the man went to the earth

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:And looked again,

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:Lo, there was the ball of gold.

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:Now this is the strange part:

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:It was a ball of gold.

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:Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold

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::("The Black Riders and Other Lines," ####)

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