Description

War is Kind, was unconventional for the time in that it was written in free verse without rhyme, meter, or even titles for individual works. They are typically short in length and although several poems, such as 'Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind', use stanzas and refrains, most do not. Crane also differed from his peers and poets of later generations in that his work contains allegory, dialectic and narrative situations.This excellent anthology contains nearly all of Crane's verse, including two complete books of poems: The Black Riders and Other Lines, which garnered immediate praise; and War Is Kind, ablaze with vivid imagery. Here, too, are rewarding selections from his uncollected poetic works. Thought by some critics to anticipate the Imagist movement of the twentieth century, Crane's poems are usually brief, cadenced, and rhymeless, rich in drama and symbolism, and spiritually penetrating.