Hart Crane's 'The Bridge': An Annotated Edition

I. Ave Maria

i. ave maria Venient annis, saecula seris, Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet et ingens pateat tellus Tethysque novos detegat orbes Nec sit terris ultima Thule. —Seneca ave maria: The title is related only obliquely to this first section of The Bridge, an impressionistic monologue by Columbus recounting his voyage home from the New World in 1493. Crane consulted Columbus’s journal for details of the voyage, William H. Prescott’s thenstandard History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (1885) for the political background, and Waldo Frank’s recent Virgin Spain (1926) for its conception of Columbus as a poetic visionary intent upon finding a genuinely new world. Originally entitled ‘‘Columbus,’’ the text alludes neither to the Catholic prayer Ave Maria nor to the musical settings of it by Schubert and Gounod, which Crane might have known. However, as any schoolchild in the 1920s would have been taught, Columbus’s three ships were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The phrase Ave Maria may recall, if only as an undertone, another prayer to Mary, Ave maris stella—‘‘Hail, Star of the Sea.’’ The Medieval Latin hymn that begins with these words invokes the Virgin as the ‘‘gate of heaven,’’ which for Crane’s Columbus might suggest an analogue to the New World: ‘‘Ave, maris stella,/Dei mater alma,/atque semper virgo,/félix caeli porta’’ (Hail, star of the sea,/Nurturing Mother of God,/And ever Virgin,/ Happy gate of Heaven). A subsequent verse asks Mary as guiding star to ‘‘iter para tutum’’ (‘‘prepare a safe way’’). epigraph: The conclusion to Act 2 of Seneca’s Medea: Years will come in the line of ages In which Ocean will release the chains of things And the great planet shall stand revealed; And Tethys will disclose new worlds Nor shall Thule be the ultimate bound of earth. The Greek Tethys (Roman Thetis) was one of the twelve Titans, the sister and wife of Oceanus, and the mother of the nymphs of both rivers and oceans. Thule is an antique term for Iceland, once thought to be the westernmost boundary of the world. The phrase ultima Thule, coined by Virgil in the proem to his Georgics in connection with the western expansion of the Roman Empire, proverbially refers to the remotest limit of travel, usually designating a place that can be approached but never reached. Be with me, Luis de San Angel, now—1 Columbus, Witness before the tides can wrest away2 alone, gazing The word I bring, O you who reined my suit toward Spain, Into the Queen’s great heart that doubtful day;3 invokes the For I have seen now what no perjured breath presence of Of clown nor sage can riddle or gainsay;— two faithful To you, too, Juan Perez,4 whose counsel fear partisans of And greed adjourned,—I bring you back Cathay!5 his quest. . . . Here waves climb into dusk on gleaming mail; 9 Invisible waves of the sea,—locks, tendons Crested and creeping, troughing corridors That fall back yawning to another plunge. Slowly the sun’s red caravel drops light6 Once more behind us. . . . It is morning there— 1. Luis de Santángel, the treasurer of the Spanish royal court, used his influence to secure financial backing for Columbus’s expedition. See note 3. 2. ‘‘Ave Maria’’ opens in medias res on February 13 or 14, 1493, when, according to Columbus ’s journal, a ‘‘great storm’’ overtook his ship somewhere in the vicinity of the Azores: ‘‘The waves were terrible, rising against each other, and so shaking and straining the vessel that she was in danger of being stove in.’’ The whelming tides threatened to ‘‘wrest away’’ the word of Columbus’s discoveries. (Crane called attention to the ‘‘water-swell rhythm’’ of the verse in a letter to Waldo Frank, July 26, 1926). After narrowly avoiding being swamped, Columbus ordered that several pilgrimages of thanks be vowed to Marian shrines. Lots were drawn to select the pilgrims: the first one fell to Columbus himself, who, as admiral, drew first (and may have staged the outcome). The whole crew then ‘‘made a vow that, on arriving at first land, they would all go in procession, in their shirts, to say their prayers in a church dedicated to Our Lady.’’ 3. The Queen is Isabella I of Spain, who, with her husband King Ferdinand, sponsored Columbus’s voyage. The doubtful day occurred...