Why was Jean Toomer's Cane such a revolutionary novel? It told a story that moved backward in time.
It featured an unusual mix of poetry and prose.
It described life in the rural South.
It opened up American agriculture to scrutiny.

But this, but you – small, pitiful and twiggy – you put me down with wine, you blinded me. come back, odysseus, and i'll treat you well, praying the god of earthquake to befriend you – his son i am, for he by his avowal fathered me, and, if he will, he may heal me of this black wound – he and no other of all the happy gods or mortal men.' few words i shouted in reply to him: 'if i could take your life i would and take your time away, and hurl you down to hell! the god of earthquake could not heal you there! ' at this he stretched his hands out in his darkness toward the sky of stars, and prayed poseidon: 'o hear me, lord, blue girdler of the islands, if i am thine indeed, and thou art father: grant that odysseus, raider of cities, never see his home -the odyssey, homer what motivates cyclops to ask poseidon to interfere with odysseus's journey home?