Poetry, as a literary genre, is broadly defined as "the art or work of a poet" or "literature imaginative or creative in general” (Oxford English Dictionary). With such a broad definition in context, poets are able to conceive of their own literature as poetry by studying the poems and poets before them. Subsequently, poets are able to extend or manipulate the ideas, structure, and themes of poems that preceded their own. For example, Thomas Stearns Eliot was the precursor to Harold Hart Crane. Crane's work suggests that he studied Eliot's writing, such as how Eliot created movement with words and a montage of metronomes. Not only did Crane imitate particular elements of Eliot's work, but he also transformed the desperate themes of Eliot's work into hopeful propositions for the future through his epic poem "The Bridge." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayEliot's poetic work contains the movement of space and time, a predominant characteristic that Crane also uses in his poetry. For example, the speaker of Eliot's epic poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," creates a back-and-forth movement with his diction of thoughts. The speaker of this poem preemptively leads the audience to "a primordial question" (10), then remarks to the audience: "Oh, don't ask, 'What is that?' (11), shortly after. Subsequently, Eliot's poem creates movement through the narrator's thoughts, which begins to lead to a question, then changes movement as the narrator's tone stops. Additionally, Eliot further incorporates movement in his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” through the physical movement of people. In describing, for example, “the women [who] come and go while talking about Michelangelo” (35-36), the speaker describes a physical movement of coming and going. In doing so, the audience can visualize a movement from east to west as the women talk about Michelangelo, a man the speaker feels he cannot compare himself to due to his "baldness in the middle of [his] hair... [and] his arms and his legs which are thin” (40-44). Similarly, Crane describes physical movement in his poem “The Bridge.” From the proem, To Brooklyn Bridge, the speaker sets the scene through the imagery of a seagull, whose "wings will dip and swing her... building high above the chained waters of La Bay freedom, then, with an inviolate curve, will abandon our eyes. » (2-5). The words "dip", "high", and "curve" in two short stanzas at the beginning of the poem allow the audience to imagine spatial movement much like the movement in Eliot's poems. Crane then takes his audience through a space journey to Atlantis, which the speaker eloquently describes, the bridge moving in a vertical direction "Through the bound strands of cables, the arcing path upwards (1-2 ), while the bridge connects from east to west . While Crane imitates Eliot's writing style which depicts physical movement, he changes the tone of movement over time. manipulates time in a melancholy tone, Crane manipulates the movement of time in a hopeful tone In Death By Water from Eliot's poem "The Wasteland", the speaker relates that Phlebas was going up and down while "he. crossed the stages of his age and youth by entering a whirlwind” (317-18) by drowning The speaker presents this morbid event and proposes to his audience, especially to those who “look to the wind” (320). ), to “consider Phlebas, who wasonce beautiful and tall like you” (321). Thus, the speaker urges audience members with positive minds to look back at history for malicious memories rather than hopeful insight. Crane transforms Eliot's disposition by moving time into the past to inform the present in a more hopeful way. In Van Winkle's "The Bridge," for example, the speaker brings up examples from his mother and father, then tells Van Winkle to learn from the past, remarking, "Have you got your 'Times'_ ? (47). By advising Van Winkle to consult the “Times” (47), a source of information, the speaker suggests that Van Winkle collect knowledge to illuminate his future. Unlike Eliot, who brings up the past because of his morbid thoughts, Crane suggests that there is still hope. After recalling examples from his mother and father when he was young and urging Van Winkle to consult the Times, the speaker of Crane's poem strongly urges, "Hurry up, Van Winkle, it's getting late!" (48). Even if “it’s getting late!” (48) may suggest limited time and urgency, but it also recognizes that there is more time to persevere than to drown. Crane, like Eliot, manipulates time in his poetry. However, Crane extends his disposition in a more positive way. The literary montage style of Crane's poetry further presents himself as the disciple of TS Eliot. As The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry explains, Eliot's poetry is "made up of fragments; they are pieces of a puzzle that could be put together if certain spiritual conditions were met" (461). In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," for example, the speaker describes fragments of a woman's body rather than describing the woman as a whole by admitting, "I have already known the arms, I have known them all, arms with bracelets and white and naked (But in the light of a lamp, wearing light brown hair)” (62-64). Furthermore, in this poem by Eliot, the speaker fragments himself by comparing himself to "a pair of jagged claws rushing to the bottom of the silent seas" (73-74). The way the speaker sexualizes the woman through her arms, and the way the speaker presents himself as no more dignified than the claws of a small creature on the seabed, fragments entire objects into smaller pieces. Likewise, Crane also uses fragments in his poetry. Crane uses stanzas of varied form that take place in different geographic locations from the waters of Manhattan in The Harbor Dawn (618) "through Ohio and Indiana" in The River (621). Crane further features montages through fragments of attributions to historical icons such as Pocahontas, Christopher Columbus. Crane even provides references to other poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, playing on Poe's famous quote "Nevermore!" of his poem “The Raven” by declaring: “O always! (78), in VII. The “Bridge” tunnel. Crane uses these fragments of geographic locations and people to build upon a message beyond its small parts. In Ava Maria, an early section of “The Bridge,” Crane includes a reference to Christopher Columbus, an icon who took a journey for a greater purpose. This suggests that the poem, like Columbus, carries a message. Unlike the montages to set pieces that Eliot writes about, Crane writes to montages that perhaps contain a message for the future. While the speaker in Eliot's poetry depicts a personal cry for help, the speaker in Crane's poetry suggests a nationalist and reformation cry for help. In Eliot's poems, the speaker describes a world without hope. In The Fire Sermon from “The Wasteland” for example, the speaker has difficulty establishing connections with those around him. The speaker has difficulty.