Crane, Hart
Hart Crane was a gifted poet. Born in Garrettsville, Ohio into a dysfunctional family, he worked in a printshop, wrote advertising copy, became a riveter in a shipyard, and a reporter on the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In his early 30s, he committed suicide by jumping into the Gulf of Mexico from a steamer.

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O Appalachian Spring! I gained the ledge;

Steep, inaccessible smile that eastward bends

and northward reaches in that violet wedge

Of Adirondack!&endash;wisped of azure wands . . .

Stanza from The Bridge

 

High unto Labrador the sun strikes free

Her speechless dream of snow, and stirred again,

She is the torrent and the singing tree;

And she is virgin to the last of men . . .

Ibid.