An Analysis of Whitman's
In "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry", Whitman tries to understand the relationship between human beings across time. Whitman tries to figure out what he means to the people he sees, the crowds of strangers that inhabit Brooklyn. In the poem he assumes we will see everything as he does and share the same feelings as he had even in years to come. This is the connection, of the shared experience, between us in the future and him in the present. Walt Whitman tries to understand the importance of this shared experience, in hopes it will transcend time and mortality to reach us in the future. He thought it would invoke the same emotions, feelings and questions this place invokes in him. This makes us part of a whole, connects us together, both present and future. He explains that the body, where the self and world come together, designates us as individuals, but also helps us partakes in this shared experience. "I too had received identity by my body; That I was, I knew was of my body-and what I should be, I knew I should be on my body." (Whitman 6) Whitman's main message to us is summarized in his question to us, "What is it, then, between us?". (Whitman
greedy and new technologies are developed and things will be destroyed to make way for industrialization. "Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these wanting." (Whitman 7) He too has felt the pressure of time and change and the want for bigger and better things. He knows that not much longer will the skyline remain the same. The people on the ferry interest him because they are not worried about the future as he is. They just go on with their lives, appreciating what they have now, but excepting that change is a part of life. Whitman doesn't want to except that. He communicates to us by addressing us many times in the poem. Throughout the poem he is asking us questions. In the beginning he starts by stating that we all will appreciate this scenery someday as he did then. But then he changes his mood to show his understanding of the time difference. The way he talks of nature in the same way he address the man-made things. "Others will watch the run of the flood-tide; Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east;". Another examples of this is, "The large wh
Some common words found in the essay are:
Walt Whitman, Ferry Whitman, shared experience, whitman tries, whitman tries understand, tries understand, city stay,
Approximate Word count = 782
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
