There are some poets that I like best, and Stephen Crane is one of them. For most people, they have more likely come across Crane when they had to read his most famous novel in high school, The Red Badge of Courage. For me, I like his poetry better than his books and short stories. He wrote a lot, especially when you consider that he died at the age of 28 in 1900 (wikipedia.com). What I like about his poetry is similar to why I like Emily Dickinson so much; they both pack a lot of meaning into a few words. I can read their poems over and over, and each time I enjoy how the words go together with the emotion and meaning. To me, the joy of reading poetry is like the idea behind the phrase ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. Poetry that is written well can put more than a book’s worth of meaning into a very short space. I like rhyme and pattern, and a lot of people think poetry has to have those two elements. Stephen Crane doesn’t have rhyme, and many would not consider it to have a pattern either. For me, the ideas expressed are the pattern, and they are excellent. I’ll have some more posts that include other poems by Crane that I like, but this one is probably my favorite. If you are interested in reading more about and by Stephen Crane, this link is for a wikisource on his poetry and books, and this is his Wikipedia page.
A man said to the universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." Stephen Crane War Is Kind & Other Lines, 1905
