Hart Crane - Virginia
Poet Alludes to Religious Overtones and Uses Unusual Alliteration
Jan 29, 2009
Hart Crane’s poem “Virginia” appears to begin as a diary entry: “O rain at seven,” which is very unusual to open with, seems to suggest and layout what is to follow in the forthcoming stanzas. The word “rain” is specifically being addressed here, possibly like some minor divinity. For Crane, “rain” may be a religious overtone that will help connect his readership to his own spiritual awareness and ‘drench’ them in a specific mindset similar to his.
Who or What Does Mary Represent?
As we move on, the voice in the poem addresses itself and gives instruction to “keep smiling the boss away.” It is against a “work” background that “Mary” is addressed. There have been three addresses thus far: First the rain is apostrophized, then oneself, then “Mary” in her absence. The word “gone” is repeated and parallels the repeated numerals also. This seems to be a process of making something specific very general.
Neither seven nor eleven specify Mary’s whereabouts. The reader is impressed with a whole number of things that are not there. It seems that these are not given because of the clear metrical pattern, which may explain why we want to read on and find out more particular details about what is making the speaker repeat himself, almost like humming to himself during a long wait. It also appears that the poet has a specific mental image of how “Mary” should be visualized by the reader. In essence, that visualization is draped around a “brightness” of Mary (bells, gleam, and golden hair) which necessitates her shining in the aura of Spring.
Throughout this poem, the main character “Mary” is not present. In the first part of the poem, Crane characterizes Mary’s absence with her working (keeping the boss smiling) and her devotion to her job (gone seven, gone eleven). However, towards the end of the poem, Crane uses certain metaphors (the high tower; Cathedral Mary) which suggest Mary has been elevated to a higher spiritual status. In addition, there is other religious referencing evident by the line “Saturday Mary, mine.” Saturday is the pagan equivalent of the biblical Sabbath -- bringing the religious allusion to a secular level.
Listen to the Echoic Sounds
Mary with a pair of blue eyes and a claret scarf – perhaps a reference to the Scarlet Letter -- shows that this poem has intense alliteration. “Green” and “gleam” bring about strong visualization, just as “figs” and “oyster shells,” which continue the very revealing alliterative associations. Towards the end of the poem, you find “hair” rhyming with stairs, which instantly brings in the fairy tale theme of long blond hair used as a ladder to help a prince ascend to a tower where the girl is held captive.
Overall, the text does strike one as being fractured. Therefore resulting in the reader being asked to literally construct the poem he/she wants to read, with the inconsistencies, the blanks, and the leaps of information included. Thus, the reader must take the responsibility of creating an artifact from the contents of this poem in order to fill-in the blanks. Most likely, this is exactly the result intended by Crane.
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