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Question: In the poem "The Wayfarer”, what is Crane's ironic comment on the pursuit of truth!?
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On a semi-close inspection, it would seem to me that Crane is saying that, ironically, the "truth hurts!." He's making a statement similar to Shakespeare in Hamlet!. Hamlet is NOT muddled by indecision, as so many poor readers have often thought, but he sees "much too much" of the truth of the way of the world, and sees how futile and terrifying it is, and is embarrassed, or even "humorously angered", that he should be asked to fix the world in the face of such impossible distress and futility!.

Similarly, the path to truth in Crane's "The Wayfarer" is overgrown with painful daggers which, if you step onto the path, will cut up your feet; if you take the path and find truth, you'll be hurt and dumbstruck and terrified by this path, so that the Truth (with a capital 'T') itself convinces the poem's 'hero' to turn to a different path, to choose something other than truth!. And he doesn't even need to walk the path at all, only get a bit of a glimpse into truth, in order to be terrified by it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com