Stephen Crane's "I Saw a Man"

Never have I read something so fatalistic as Stephen Crane, yet, never have I enjoyed his poetry so much. Crane's poetry is dark, deterministic, and filled with red swords, etc. etc. One poem though, really caught my attention because it coincides with something that I learned in my mythology class this quarter. The poem I am referring to is called "I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon," and was published in 1895. Actually Crane never titled his poems, so really the poem is "Untitled."

In my mythology class this quarter, I have learned about the horizon--a very important element of all classical mythology up to some Native American mythologies as well. The horizon is a symbol of an afterlife or immortality. Sometimes the protagonist would travel around in circles to reach it, eventually doing so, and gaining life eternal or the illustrious immortal life. And they are two different things, in my opinion.

You are probably asking, "What does this have to do with Stephen Crane?"

Good question, I applaud you. What does this have to do with Stephen Crane or his work? Everything.

The poem goes like this:

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said.
"You can never--"

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.


Is the man chasing eternal life or immortality in this piece as well? I think so, which makes sense, certainly if Crane is the narrator. Crane rejected the faiths of his parents, rejected notions of hope, and rejected notions of paradise. He would reject the notion, then, that finding the horizon would lead to life everlasting.

In the line, "I was disturbed at this," I got the sense that Crane sees those who blindly search in faith to be ridiculous. It obviously disturbed him just to see the man chasing the horizon, how much more disturbing would it be for him to see someone walking with "blind faith"?

I see a lot of truth in that. How many people live with "blind faith"?