Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"


In Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” the speaker is a man on a ferry between Manhattan and Brooklyn. He peers over the ferry ledge to look at the water below and as he sees the clouds and sun reflected in the water and addresses them as “you.” The speaker also looks among the business and work people on the ferry saying they look “curious,” he then ponders the people who will in the future make the same trip across the river as them. The speaker then begins to feel connected to a sort of system larger then himself as he is bewildered at the act that the other future people crossing the river will see the same sunsets and tides. The speaker expresses that time and place cannot separate people and to the people of the future he says “I am with you.” He then gives examples of common experiences people all share such as being in a large crowd of standing against the rail of a ship. It is very apparent that the speaker now feels very close to his readers of the future as he says, "What's a couple hundred years between friends?" He begins to describe events of his life, as though we too are a part of it. He then however, begins to pour out his heart about all the evil sins he has committed, such as lying. Despite all these things though, he points out that he is just a typical man and he associates life to that of a theater. Going along with this theory he says how he could be watching us even as we are listening to him. He then goes to extremes and explains how nothing not even the "Gods," could be as great as the sight he has from the ferry. He says that we can only know the soul through all the things that make up the physical world, they wait for us to perceive them in the right way and we have ignored it, but we won’t anymore.
Walt Whitman’s “Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry,“ is very analytical of the connection that men have between each other, the connection between men and nature, and the connection between nature and the spiritual world. I would agree with the argument he poses regarding human’s relation with other humans. It is very true that within nature we can all share the same experiences, because it is unchanging and cannot be altered by men. Therefore, our ancestors can come back to it even a hundred years later to see, and experience the exact same things. 

1 comment:

  1. Try to connect this more deliberately to the other texts we have read.

    ReplyDelete