Elinor Nauen

A Man Said to the Universe

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

 

He was my favorite poet in high school, probably my first favorite poet. I planned to get married on his November 1 birthday, though as it turns out I didn't.

 

Crane was an unusual predeliction for a teen, I think now, & while I am still a fan, I'm not sure what was so compelling to me then. Perhaps the directness of his language, something I still appreciate & aim for in my own work. Or the irony? 

Stephen Crane: A critical biography by John Berryman was first published in 1950. It's much briefer than Paul Auster's bio of Crane that I read last year, and was written when some of the principals were still alive or recently dead. There's a strange & Freudian final section, "The Color of This Soul," that was hard to get through but otherwise Berryman is suggestive & illuminating on the work, giving lots of room to the poetry. 

A Man Said to the Universe

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

 

This is quite possibly the first non-kid poem I learned by heart. 

Thinking about refreshing this 8-year-old project. Going to try adding a new weekly feature: What I'm reading. In my recent mania to forget nothing, I've been listing every book I finish. Let's see how this goes...

 

My first favorite poet was Stephen Crane. In declam in high school, I recited a couple of his poems. Oh my gosh! The girl who crooned Longfellow was feted, while Crane's bitter unrhymed verses were not a hit. Did I think because they mattered so much to me, I could put them over? As I recall, I already had my low-key undeclamatory style: even then it seemed embarrassing to try to add my emotion to what the writer was doing on his own. 

 

I have to admit I also admired Crane for dying young, "before artistic old age," as I put it in my diary. I also said (I was 15 & feeling ancient): "I want to be like Stephen Crane— accomplish something great, then die. I do not care to grow old — senile, blind, rheumatic & be repeating the same things, activities, ideas all over."

 

All this said, I was excited to grab a copy of Burning Boy, Paul Auster's new biography of Crane. He's certainly a completist ~ hard to imagine Crane spent as much time thinking about what he wrote as Auster does. That said, it's sending me back to the work over & over, & that's what a biography of a writer should do, right? 

Stephen Crane (1871–1900) was born on this date. He was my favorite poet when I was in high school.

A Man Said to the Universe

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

I liked that he got right to the point, that I could understand it while it still  Read More