The Broken Tower -- Hart Crane

This poem is full of symbolism. I took notes on the presentation and discussion that we had in class. This is what I got from it:

- Important images:
- Bells, dawn, choir, cathedral
- Dawn: symbolic of purity, newness, rebirth
- Tower – symbol of masculinity
- Church as a social institution
-People live their lives with religion in the back of their minds in the form of social standards.
-Significant to Crane because he is operating in a society that looks down upon gay men, like himself.
- Crane as a Dionysian poet
-The sublime: extreme emotional states—achieved thru crane’s ability to “overwhelm” the mind by using “language’s infinite ocean of meaning”