Short and profound, Crane’s A Man Said to the Universe is a complex poem of few words. Its meaning is ambiguous, but when combined with Burke’s quote, it becomes quite influential. This poem personifies the cosmos, by giving the universe a condescending personality. When in response to man saying that he exists, the universe replies “However, the fact has no created in me a sense of obligation” which basically means that just plain existence isn’t enough. To be noticed man must do more than exist, he must exist for the good of all things, not just for the good of himself. Burke’s quote is an excellent summary of the main theme of this poem: if a good man only exists, and doesn’t attempt to do good, evil wins. The same general theme exists in both the quote and the poem. Simply being there on the sidelines is no way to live and no person deserves any credit for simply being there. By contrast unlike the quote, the poem doesn’t verbally state that something more than existence would warrant the attention of the universe, though based on the condescending tone that the universe uses with the man, it’s implied. The universe is kind of saying “Yeah? Well, try harder and I’ll care.”
Crane is the youngest of fourteen children in his family. This obviously had a drastic effect on his view of the universe. Having to compete with his siblings for the attention of his parents is very similar to all of mankind competing amongst themselves for the attention of the universe. I can easily see a young child saying to their mother “Mom! I’m here! Look at me!” A mother of one would probably say something like “Yes, and you’re my special little darling,” whereas a mother of fourteen would be much too busy to give attention to her children simply because they’re there. However, if the child takes action and does something good or prevents evil from happening instead of watching, mommy is very likely to take notice—Just as the universe takes notice if a man does something good for everything.
The good versus evil theme runs deep in Crane’s poetry. In another poem, he writes “I stood upon a high place, /And saw, below, many devils /Running, leaping, /and carousing in sin. /One looked up, grinning, /And said, “Comrade! Brother!“” This poem in combination with A Man Said to the Universe, opens up a larger glimpse into Crane’s mind. In this poem, Crane is watching without evil without taking action, and the evil thanks him. Crane’s calling them “devils” shows that he isn’t one of them, and that he’s against the sin that they’re ‘carousing’ in, but by doing nothing, by just watching from his high, safe, place, the evil appreciates his not getting involved. This poem also ties in with Burke’s quote very easily—I’d wager that Burke and Crane would have been friends as they share an extremely similar view of life, the planet, and the universe.
Donald Vanouse of Georgetown University had this to say “Crane seems to encourage the reader to enrich and re-evaluate ideas about patterns of action and thought. Crane asks questions rather than providing answers.” Crane attempts to pull out the good in people by letting them know that their lack of action is very insignificant on the larger scale. Burke’s quote, by contrast offers an answer. It says that the actions of a good man will counteract evil. Burke supplies the answer to Crane’s questions.
Without the quotes at the beginning of this section, these writings would be much more difficult to understand. A Man Said to the Universe is a very open-ended poem. If I hadn’t looked at it through the lens supplied by Burke, my understanding of the poem would have been limited, at best. The compelling social issues confronted by Crane are much easier understood with the help of Burke.
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