 Although it is not certain when Crane began to write poetry seriously, he once said that his overall poetic aim was "to give my ideas of life as a whole, so far as I know it".The poetic style used in both of his books of poetry, "The Black Riders and Other Lines" and "War is Kind", was unconventional for the time in that it was written in free verse without rhyme, meter, or even titles for individual works.They are typically short in length; although several poems, such as "Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind", use stanzas and refrains, most do not.