Many Red Devils . . .

Many red devils . . .

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page.
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.

                       - By Stephen Crane


 First thoughts: Crane has created a poem about writing down negative things, whether those be thoughts, memories, previous actions, etc. . . It is a possibility that Crane's large collection of poetry is made up of mostly positive ones and that this is the interpretation of his first experience with negative writings. Crane could not stop writing nor could say he did not like writing with the red devils because they came from his heart and were true.

Every letter beginning each sentence in this one stanza poem is capitalized. In my AP Literature class we discussed the importance of capitalized and un-capatalized letters. Crane wanted emphasis on every sentence and wanted that emphasis to create importance of each sentence. Every word matters just as much as the other.

Tiny, mash, muck. These three words make me think of children. It is not that they are childish but that children are especially drawn to them. I believe Crane used these words to make the poem about tiny devils more pleasant and less dark. It's neither a happy poem nor a dark. It is content, as is the author with the tiny devils in his heart.