Harold Hart Crane was an American poet, best known for his only long poem, The Bridge. Inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote highly stylized modernist poetry, often noted for its complexity. He published poems in various literary magazines throughout his life, as well as two collections: White Buildings (1926) and The Bridge (1930). White Buildings helped to cement his place in the avant-garde literary scene of the time. In The Bridge, he tried to write an epic poem in the style of The Waste Land, that expressed a more optimistic view of modern, urban culture than the one that he found in Eliot's work. The Broken Tower (1932) was meant to be his last published poem. However, it only appeared in print following his death.

The Bridge, first published in 1930 by the Black Sun Press, is Hart Crane's first, and only, attempt at a long poem.