In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

MOUNTAINEERING
Silence and eternity: these are the qualities that Hart Crane associates
with the sublime landscape he evokes in his poem "North Labrador":
"A land of leaning ice / Hugged by plaster-grey arches of sky, / Flings
itself silently / Into eternity" (Crane, 21). [see Silence vs. Noise, Present
= Past (Eternity)] Nordic nature, though awe-inspiringly cold and indifferent,
is presented as an object of potential erotic desire-"potential"
because no human being has ever been exposed to its temptations and
because, therefore, no human gaze has ever awakened its sexuality: "Has
no one come here to win you, / Or left you with the faintest blush / Upon
your glittering breasts? / Have you no memories, 0 Darkly Bride?" The
questions remain unanswered. For although ice and silence are subject
to the "shifting of moments" as elementary temporal structures, they
host no life that could transform this unchanging rhythm into the form
of a history to be remembered. [see Present vs. Past] The sexuality that
Crane associates with the icy mountains of North Labrador can be
attributed only to the mountains themselves: "Cold-hushed, there is only
the shifting of moments / That journey toward no Spring- / No birth,
no death, no time nor sun / In answer."
In its November 6 issue, the Buenos Aires magazine Caras y Caretas
publishes a poem entitled "Desde los Andes" ("From the Andes") which
is likewise a lyrical evocation of an icy, mountainous South American
landscape. But this poem differs from Crane's in that it explicitly stages
and narrates man's confrontation with nature. This confrontation takes
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