''White Buildings'' was the first collection (1926) of poetry by

Hart Crane Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Provoked and inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. In his most ambitious work, '' The Brid ...

, an American

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

poet, critical to both

lyrical Lyrical may refer to: *Lyrics, or words in songs *Lyrical dance, a style of dancing *Emotional, expressing strong feelings *Lyric poetry, poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view *Lyric video A music video is a video of variab ...

and

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

poetic traditions. The book features well-known pieces like "For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen," the "

Voyages Voyage(s) or The Voyage may refer to: Literature *''Voyage : A Novel of 1896'', Sterling Hayden * ''Voyage'' (novel), a 1996 science fiction novel by Stephen Baxter *''The Voyage'', Murray Bail * "The Voyage" (short story), a 1921 story by K ...

" series, and some of his most famous lyrics including "My Grandmother's Love Letters" and "Chaplinesque."

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking wor ...

has argued that this collection alone, if perhaps taken with his later lyric, '

The Broken Tower "The Broken Tower" is the last poem meant to be published by poet Hart Crane in 1932. In keeping with the varieties and difficulties of Crane criticism, the poem has been interpreted widely—as death ode, life ode, process poem, visionary poem, ...

,' could have secured Crane's reputation as one of the best American poets of the 20th century.

Preface

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

was happy to help Crane by writing a preface to ''White Buildings'', but, increasingly frustrated with his failure to articulate an understanding of the poems, left it to

Allen Tate John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Life Early years Tate was born near Winchester, K ...

to finish the piece.

Reviews

According to the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Rut ...

, "this work earned

rane Rane or Ranes may refer to: Geography *Råne River, Sweden *Rânes, a commune in the Orne department in northwestern France * Ráneš, a large island in Troms county, Norway People Indians * Rane (clan), an Indian Maratha clan ** Prachi Rane ...

substantial respect as an imposing stylist, one whose lyricism and imagery recalled the French Romantics Baudelaire and Rimbaud". One notable review of the book was mixed. In ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'',

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...

wrote that Crane had "a remarkable style... almost something like a great style, if there could be such a thing as a great style... ut it'snot, so far as one can see, applied to any subject at all". Crane responded to this criticism by calling Wilson's article "half-baked". The poet and critic

Randall Jarrell Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poet ...

singled out "the mesmeric rhetoric of

he poem He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

'Voyages II' sone of the most beautiful of all of those poems in which love, death, and sleep 'are fused for an instant in one floating flower.Jarrell, Randall. "Fifty years of American Poetry". ''No Other Book: Selected Essays''. HarperCollins, 1999.

Notes

1926 poetry books American poetry collections {{poetry-stub