The Desert
KAR SON KER N
nd
2
Poem
Football
BY: Louis Jenkins
Stephen Crane
o Born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey
o Stephen Crane was the 14th and last child
o Parents Mary Helen Peck Crane and Reverend Jonathan Townley Crane
o Raised by his older sister Agnes, the young Crane attended preparatory
school at Claverack College.
o He later spent less than two years overall as a college student at Lafayette
College in Easton, Pennsylvania
o Then at Syracuse University in upstate New York. He then moved to
Paterson, New Jersey with one of his brothers and made frequent trips to
nearby New York City, writing short pieces on what he experienced there.
Structure of Poem
• 1 stanza
• 10 lines
• Stephen used a free verse rhyme scheme of 10 lines.
Speaker of the poem
• The speaker seems to be
talking about someone
who has a bad life and out
in the darkness of life.
• So he eats of his heart
because it is bitter from
sin.
Literary Elements
Free Verse- doesn’t have
regular meter or rhyme
scheme.
Imagery
• “I saw a creature,
naked, bestial”.
• This animal is in the
desert all naked and
bestial.
“Who, squatted upon the
ground,”
These animals are
in the dessert
squatting upon the
ground to rest.
Imagery
• “Held his heart in his
hands, And ate of it.”
• His heart is broken
and holding it in his
hand eating it.
Imagery
•“I said, “Is it
good, friend?””
•Asking his friend
if his heart is
good meaning
pure.
Image
• Word or phrase that
appeals to 1 or more
of the senses .
• “Who, squatting
upon the ground,”
Free Verse
• Doesn’t have regular
meter or rhyme
scheme.
• “I saw a creature,
naked, bestial,”
Ballad
• Poem that tells a
story.
Sensory Details
• Elements that help
you imagine how
something looks,
smells, sounds, feels,
or tastes.
• “It is bitter-bitter,”
Assonance
• Partial corresponding;
rough similarity.
Literal
• Taking words in their
usual or most basic
sense without
metaphor or allegory.
Figurative
• Departing from a
literal use of words;
metaphorical.
Authors Purpose
• I think the author’s purpose for
writing this poem was “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.“ (Stephen
Crane)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In
_the_Desert
Theme
• A theme in this poem is of
a person that he had once
lost and ripped out his
heart. So he ate his broken
heart that was ripped out
of him and is all bitter and
nasty full of sin. From the
bad things he did in life
from living in the dark.
THE END