Stephen Crane is one of the giants of American literature. His novel, The Red Badge of Courage, is a classic. His short story, The Open Boat is considered by some critics to be one of the finest short stories in the English language. His poetry falls short of this high standard. It was not widely acclaimed when it was first published, and it has been almost forgotten today.

But I have always liked it a lot. So I thought this week I would offer four of his poems. They are short and have no titles. And they are somewhat eccentric, even by today's standards. They don't rhyme, and they follow no apparent metric pattern.

When Crane's first poems were published toward the end of the 19^th century, several critics were somewhat impressed, using terms such as "fascinating" and "bold." Several critics compared him to Walt Whitman, some favorably and some not so favorably. One noted that Whitman's shortcomings have been pardoned "for the sake of his poetic thoughts," but then, referring to Crane, noted that "we cannot go on forgiving these eccentricities of genius forever."

It is probably worth noting that because of its unusual nature, Crane's poetry was also widely panned at the time. The introduction to my little volume, The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane, which contains 134 verses, notes that Crane's first book of poetry (there were two) "was the target of fun, both friendly and vicious."

Anyway, here are four of my favorite Crane poems. I hope you enjoy them.