Naturally I am encountering many unexpected formal difficulties in satisfying my conception, especially as one’s original idea has a way of enlarging steadily under the spur of daily concentration on minute details of execution. I don’t wish to express my confidence too blatantly--but I am certain that, granted I’m able to find the suitable form for all details as I presently conceive them, _The Bridge_ will be a dynamic and eloquent document. As I said, I have thus far completed only the final section,--about one hundred lines. I am now going straight through from the beginning. There has been much incidental reading to do, and more study is necessary as I go on. As I cannot think of my work in terms of time I cannot gauge when it will be completed, probably by next December, however. There are so many interlocking elements and symbols at work throughout _The Bridge_ that it is next to impossible to describe it without resorting to the actual metaphors of the poem. Roughly, however, it is based on the conquest of space and knowledge. The theme of “Cathay” (its riches, etc.) ultimately is transmuted into a symbol of consciousness, knowledge, spiritual unity. A rather religious motivation, albeit not Presbyterian. The following notation is a very rough abbreviation of the subject matter of the several sections: I Columbus--Conquest of space, chaos II Pokahantus--The natural body of America-fertility, etc. III Whitman--The Spiritual body of America (A dialogue between Whitman and a dying soldier in a Washington hospital; the infraction of physical death, disunity, on the concept of immortality) IV John Brown (Negro porter on Calgary Express making up berths and singing to himself (a jazz form for this) of his sweetheart and the death of John Brown, alternately) V Subway--The encroachment of machinery on humanity; a kind of purgatory in relation to the open sky of last section VI The Bridge--A sweeping dithyramb in which the Bridge becomes the symbol of consciousness spanning time and space The first and last sections are composed of blank verse with occasional rhyme for accentuation. The verbal dynamics used and the spacious periodicity of the rhythm result in an unusually symphonic form. What forms I shall use for the other sections will have to be determined when I come to grips with their respective themes. I would gladly send you the completed section for present reading, but unless you especially wish to see it now I should prefer your judgment on it later when a more synthetic reading will be possible. I hope that this extended amount of particulars,--evidence, perhaps, of an excessive enthusiasm on my part, has not been tedious reading. Your interest and confidence have proved to be so great a spur to me that I must mention my gratitude again. 236: TO WALDO FRANK _Mid-channel_ [_Patterson_] _March 20th, ’26_