LITR 4232: American Renaissance
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Student Presentation, spring 2001

Reader: Douglas Goforth

Discussion notes: Barbara Sharp

Thursday, 12 April 2001

Walt Whitman, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

Course Objective 3

To use literature as a basis for discussing representative problems and subjects of American culture. Specifically emergence of the individual, individual and the community, and nature or land.

The main theme of this poem seemed to be that while everyone has the ability to think for themselves, make their own decisions, and be an individual, we as people are held together by the fact that we share experiences. Everything that you think, feel, or experience, has been thought, felt, or experienced by thousands of other people. These shared experiences are what pull us together as a community.

This explanation of communities is not original with Whitman. In-fact, political theorist and writer John Locke comments in Second Treatise of Government (1690) that the first civilizations came together because individuals and families recognized that they shared the same concerns about losing personal property. It was this common fear that caused them to come together to live. While Locke’s explanation seems primal compared to Whitman’s, we must remember, for Whitman’s sake, that the same emotions have been shared between humans since the beginning of civilizations, it is just that we have developed a larger vocabulary in order to describe these emotions.

Page 194 Section 2

            The similitudes of the past and those of the future.

            The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings,

                        On the walk in the street and the passage over the river,

            The current rushing so swiftly and swimming with me far away,

            The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them,

            The certainty of others, the life, love, sight, hearing of others.

(This emphasizes that humans not only share the same thoughts now, but they have the same thoughts that people a hundred years ago had, and the same thoughts that people a hundred years from now will have)

Page 194 Section 3

            Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,

            Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,

            Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright

                        flow, I was refresh’d

            Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current,

                        I stood yet was hurried,

            Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships

                        and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.

(Again, he is appealing to the common feelings; however, I am unsure of what to make of his including of manmade items that would date his work. Up until his mention of steamboats I could relate to his writing. I do not believe that he lacked the foresight to know that technology would change. Was he simply putting the steamboat out there to let us know that while technology may change, there will be something else to take the steamboat’s place in our thoughts?)

Whitman seemed to put an emphasis on the fact that common experiences will transcend location, morality, race and gender. The theme of individuals sharing experiences extends pas white, moral Americans.

Page 195 Section 3 (Location)

"The flags of all nations, the falling of them at sunset."

(The felings evoked from what you see are the same for people of all nations. Does the falling of them at sunset refer to the lack of ability to see?)

Page 196 Section 6 (Morality Part I)

            Nor is it you alone who know what it is to be evil,

            I am he who knew what it was to be evil,

(Slightly sidetracked but curious, does his wordings imply that he is writing for future generations or has he transcended?)

Page 198 Section 9 (Morality Part II)

            You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers.

            We received you with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward

Even the moral and the immoral can understand and relate to one another)

Page 196 Section 5 (Race and Gender)

"I too had receiv’d identity by my body,"

To continue with this last passage, I had a tough time deciphering what Whitman was trying to say. In the context of the rest of this poem, this is what I came up with:

Page 196 Section 5

           

            That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be

I knew I should be of my body.

(All I could figure is that the body serves two purposes: 1) to house the soul which realizes embodiment of the individual and 2) to be a vehicle for taking in these shared/common experiences which makes us part of the larger whole.)

It was also interesting to see that Whitman did not see technology as a burden. He made no distinction between the way he described natural objects (like the seagull) and the man made objects (like the ships). When describing these natural and man made objects he seemed to be giving us just the facts, not an insight to the importance of the objects or how they relate to humans other than the image they reflect on our eyes and that we all see the same things.

General Thoughts

Relatively simple language

Inconsistent writing style as far as structure goes

Repetition of "first words" and ideas (page 195 – Saw, Had my eyes dazzled, Look’d)

Repetition of sounds (page 195)

            "Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops, saw the ships at anchor,"

            "On the neighboring shore the fires from the foundry chimneys"

Used many "colors" (page 195)

He is a strong supporter of the "stable" objects that allow us to have our shared observations and thoughts (section 9)

Repetition of first part of poem in the second part

    1. shows the shared experiences
    2. celebrates the sharing

Peer Comments

Lynn (196) "That I was…" – implying that we should be proud of who we are.

Question of whether the use of past and present sense was about him writing to the future on not.

Joannie mentioned that he was trying to show that despite difference of past, the future readers can still relate.

Joannie connections of past and present to future is a feeling.

Lacy agrees with Joannie about it being an emotional connection of shared feelings.

Pam mentions talks about the repetition of the water – ‘ebb and flow’

Joannie mentions that Whitman sound like he is challenging the readers of the future.

Dr. White says he believes "Crossing" is one of his greatest poems – during the height of his creative writing.

Valerie asks if Whitman always wrote in this stylistic device: the sue of and idea of "I"

Dr. White uses "I" to draw you in. In "Song of Myself he does this throughout

Charley says Whitman is emphasizing that we all are going to live and die – a regeneration – time still goes on

Dr. White "Leaves of grass" growing on the graves – idea of regeneration/regrowth

Keely constant/same – some thoungs will be the same. Keeps going through time