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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
for lovers of poetry, old or modern, November 20, 2003
this collection of crane's complete poetry is divided into four sections. the two most important sections are the two volumes of poetry crane published, which were -the black riders and other lines- and -war is kind-. the third section consists of "uncollected poems", i.e. poems that were published in magazines but did not appear in the two collections, and posthumously published poems. as the other reviewers have stated, crane was not and is not known for his poetry, but it is quite magnificent. in general his poetry is surprisingly modern. they tend to be more prose-oriented although he often uses literal or loosely repeated sections (i.e. refrains) to good effect. his poetry also tends to be didactic (often taking the form of a parable with such "characters" as mountains, angels, and philosophers), morbid, and direct. which is certainly not to say that they aren't also emotional, masterful, and engaging. -the black riders- as a whole is more straightforward than the poems in -war is kind-. in general the poems in -black riders- center around the metaphysical, with themes such as religion, ethics, and philosphy appearing often. although -war is kind- contains many of the same themes, it also includes more concrete themes, such as war, the many facets of a man's relationship with a woman, and specific occurrences and objects such as the printing of newspapers. the uncollected and posthumous poetry is varied, but just as excellent if not better than the poems in the two collections. this edition is quite attractive, a nice size with a mostly competent introductory essay that sheds light on the background of the publishing of crane's two collections. the print itself is generally clean and attractive, although occasionally there are some notable flaws in the printing where a line is too dark or too light. all in all, though, this collection is highly recommended as it is complete and crane's poetry is well worth reading and timelessly relevant.
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by Stephen Crane
by Stephen Crane
by John Berryman
by Philip Larkin
by Mina Loy
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