SOURCE: "The Writing of 'The Bridge': 1923-1929," in The Broken Arc: A Study of Hart Crane, Oliver & Boyd, 1969, pp. 121-51.

In the following essay, Butterfield attempts to account for the disunity within The Bridge by examining the circumstances surrounding its composition.

I am perfectly sure that [The Bridge] will be
finished within a year.¹ (Crane—Jul. 21, 1923)

The usual criticism of The Bridge is that, while many of the separate parts are of an astonishing power and beauty, the whole lacks order, unity, and coherence. In the last few years there have been several attempts to point out various principles of organisation, but by the majority of careful readers the poem is still regarded as disjunct. That The Bridge does contain serious internal contradictions seems indisputable. Some of these contradictions can, however, be accounted for by an exploration of the circumstances of its composition over a period of seven...