Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge (from The Bridge)
Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge (from The Bridge) Lyrics
The seagull's wings shall dip and pivot him,
Shedding white rings of tumult, building high
Over the chained bay waters Liberty—
Then, with inviolate curve, forsake our eyes
As apparitional as sails that cross
Some page of figures to be filed away;
—Till elevators drop us from our day . . .
I think of cinemas, panoramic sleights
With multitudes bent toward some flashing scene
Never disclosed, but hastened to again,
Foretold to other eyes on the same screen;
And Thee, across the harbor, silver-paced
As though the sun took step of thee, yet left
Some motion ever unspent in thy stride,—
Implicitly thy freedom staying thee!
Out of some subway scuttle, cell or loft
A bedlamite speeds to thy parapets,
Tilting there momently, shrill shirt ballooning,
A jest falls from the speechless caravan.
Down Wall, from girder into street noon leaks,
A rip-tooth of the sky's acetylene;
All afternoon the cloud-flown derricks turn . . .
Thy cables breathe the North Atlantic still.
Thy guerdon . . . Accolade thou dost bestow
Of anonymity time cannot raise:
Vibrant reprieve and pardon thou dost show.
O harp and altar, of the fury fused,
(How could mere toil align thy choiring strings!)
Terrific threshold of the prophet's pledge,
Prayer of pariah, and the lover's cry,—
Again the traffic lights that skim thy swift
Unfractioned idiom, immaculate sigh of stars,
Beading thy path--condense eternity:
And we have seen night lifted in thine arms.
Under thy shadow by the piers I waited;
Only in darkness is thy shadow clear.
The City's fiery parcels all undone,
Already snow submerges an iron year . . .
O Sleepless as the river under thee,
Vaulting the sea, the prairies' dreaming sod,
Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend
And of the curveship lend a myth to God.
About
Hart Crane (1899-1932) was an American poet. Crane contributed to the genre of Modernism, with influences of T.S. Eliot throughout his works. Crane created modernist poetry that was highly stylistic, difficult to read, and ambitious. Crane sought to write an epic poem similar to Eliot’s The Waste Land and created his most famous poem, The Bridge. To Brooklyn Bridge is a prelude or “Proem” to Hart Cranes most famous poem The Bridge. In parallel to The Waste Land, Crane created a more optimistic view of modern society including more urban culture than ever found in Eliot’s piece. This poem is considered to be one of the most influential poems of the first half of the 20th century.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
