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
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