By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘In the Desert’ is a poem by the American author Stephen Crane (1871-1900), published in his 1895 collection, The Black Riders and Other Lines. Crane is perhaps best-known for his American Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, and this is his best-remembered poem.
‘In the Desert’ is a short poem, comprising just two brief stanzas: one of seven lines and one of three lines. The poem features an encounter between the speaker of the poem and a strange creature in the desert: a creature which is eating its own heart.