In The Desert I Saw a Creature, Naked, Beastial, Who, Squatting Upon the Ground Held His Heart in His Hands, And Ate of It. I said,”Is it Good, Friend?” “It is Bitter Bitter,” He Answered “But I like It Because it is Bitter, And Because it is My Heart.” By Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
“In the Desert” is the Name given to the Poem Above by American Author Stephen Crane Published in 1895 (by Copeland & Day) as a Part of His Collection, The Black Riders and Other Lines. “In The Desert” is the Third of Fifty-Six Short Poems (all of Which Simply go by Number without actual Titles) that comprise ‘The Black Riders’. Crane is Most Recognized as the Author of the Famous American Novel The Red Badge of Courage.
When Crane’s Poems were Published, He was Harshly Criticized for the Unusual Form of His Poems, and that He had Some Nerve in Presenting these “Disjointed Effusions” and Daring to call them Poetry. The First Brutal Reviews Denounced Crane’s The Black Riders as Nothing Short of “Artless and Barbaric.”
In His Correspondence with a Particular Editor of Leslie’s Weekly in 1895, Crane professed that He Preferred The Black Riders to His Iconic American Novel The Red Badge of Courage. Crane Wrote “I, suppose I ought to be Thankful to ‘The Red Badge,’ but I am much Fonder of My little book of poems, ‘The Black Riders’. My Aim was to Comprehend in it the thoughts I have had about Life in General, while ‘The Red Badge’ is a mere Episode in Life, an Amplification.”
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