"But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart"
About this Quote
Crane’s line lands like a confession you weren’t supposed to overhear: affection stripped of sweetness, loyalty severed from comfort. “But I like it” opens with a stubborn, almost petulant insistence, as if the speaker is arguing against their own better judgment. The reason that follows isn’t redemption or growth; it’s “bitter.” Crane takes the emotion most writers try to soften and refuses to dilute it. Bitterness here isn’t just a flavor, it’s a provenance - proof that the feeling has been earned the hard way.
The real turn is the last clause: “because it is my heart.” The speaker isn’t admiring bitterness as a pose. They’re claiming it as identity, the way you might defend a scar you didn’t choose but won’t let anyone mock. The subtext is brutal: we often cling to what hurts us because it’s familiar, because it has shaped our private mythology, because letting go would mean admitting we could have wanted - or deserved - something else.
Context matters. Crane, writing in a late-19th-century American culture that prized moral uplift and sentimental polish, specialized in cutting against the grain. His work traffics in unsparing psychological realism; he treats the inner life as a battlefield, not a parlor. These lines read like a small anti-hymn: no salvation, no lesson, just the fierce autonomy of owning one’s damaged interior. It works because it refuses to flatter the reader. It dares you to recognize the part of yourself that prefers a known ache to an unknown peace.
The real turn is the last clause: “because it is my heart.” The speaker isn’t admiring bitterness as a pose. They’re claiming it as identity, the way you might defend a scar you didn’t choose but won’t let anyone mock. The subtext is brutal: we often cling to what hurts us because it’s familiar, because it has shaped our private mythology, because letting go would mean admitting we could have wanted - or deserved - something else.
Context matters. Crane, writing in a late-19th-century American culture that prized moral uplift and sentimental polish, specialized in cutting against the grain. His work traffics in unsparing psychological realism; he treats the inner life as a battlefield, not a parlor. These lines read like a small anti-hymn: no salvation, no lesson, just the fierce autonomy of owning one’s damaged interior. It works because it refuses to flatter the reader. It dares you to recognize the part of yourself that prefers a known ache to an unknown peace.
Quote Details
| Topic | Poetry |
|---|---|
| Source | Stephen Crane, "In the Desert" (poem), from The Black Riders and Other Lines, 1895 — contains the lines: "But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart." |
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