LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections, fall 2000

Reader: Kimberly Jones
Respondent: Gwendolyn Darrell
28 October 2000

"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

by

Walt Whitman

In Walt Whitman’s Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, the poet is taking a ferry that runs between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The poet is taking in all of the sights, sounds, images, and motions to exhibit the experience of being on the ferry. He is aware that people have crossed the river on the ferry before him, and people will continue to cross on the ferry in the future. In a sense, the poet is writing this poem for people to read centuries from the time it was written; the poem is a living memory for people to continually experience throughout time.

The first and second stanzas of the poem give the reader the sense that the poet is looking both backward and forward. There is a feeling of the past and the future merging together. This course in American Romanticism, thus far, has focused on the notion of nostalgia and looking backward. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is one of the first instances that we have studied the Realist characteristic of looking forward. The fact that both feelings of anticipation and reminiscence are present in the poem almost places the poem in a "between" state. The juxtaposition of motion with the idea of being static or motionless creates the idea of the non-existence of time. In essence, the poet has created a poem that withstands time; it escapes death. Some critics have actually interpreted the fact that the poem takes place at sunset to be a symbol of death. If this is the case, the sunset does not represent the death of the poem; it represents the inevitable death of the poet.

In the language of the second and third stanzas of the poem, Whitman combines various images of motion and the motionless. For example, in the second stanza Whitman exhibits the idea of motion by stating,

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

Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,

Others will watch the run of the flood-tide.

In contrast, in the third stanza Whitman exhibits the notion of stillness and the idea that time does not matter or exist by stating,

It avails not, time or place—distance avails not…

Watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls, saw them high in the air floating

with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies.

The first two stanzas of the poem give the reader the feeling that there is a sense of circularity and repetition that exists in the world. Whitman reinforces this idea by providing the image of the ocean tide that never ceases. He also uses images of people going form shore to shore on the ferry. All of the people who take the ferry to one side will always take it back again. In this same vein, in Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Whitman is establishing a relationship with humanity in regard to the circle of life and human existence. He is establishing a feeling of unity, which the reader feels more strongly as the poem progresses. By the end of the ninth stanza, Whitman is incorporating all objects into the experience. In the last lines of stanza nine, he addresses all objects by stating,

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

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

At this point in the poem, humans and inanimate objects are all part of the huge, circular, repetitious experience.

Another aspect of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry that adheres to the American Romantic characteristics we have been studying in class is the idea of transcendence. Whitman differs from other Transcendentalists we have studied in regard to the fact that he did not take himself out of society like Thoreau, nor did he completely submit to a higher divine Power like Emerson. Whitman took the human factor and social issues into consideration in his poetry. Critics have separated Whitman’s poetry into three modes of transcendence or dialogue: a dialogue between the self and the external world, a dialogue between the self and another, and a dialogue between the self and the spirit. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry falls into the last category. Through the poem, Whitman is embracing his soul while also taking humanity into consideration.

In an essay on Walt Whitman, D.H. Lawrence writes, "I only know that my body doesn’t by any means gravitate to all I meet or know, I find I can shake hands with a few people. But most I wouldn’t touch with a long prop. Your mainspring is broken, Walt Whitman. The mainspring of your own individuality. And so you run down with a great whirr, merging with everything." What is your reaction to this quote? Do you think that individuality has been lost in this poem?

• Whitman is assimilating everything in the poem. He is presenting a holistic view, which actually contributes to the individuality of the poem.

• There is an intersection of the idea of nostalgia and the idea of the quest in the poem.

• Whitman incorporates the notion of the present in the poem. American Romanticism tends to be anything but the here and now. It is natural to look backwards in Romanticism, but it can also entail looking forward.

• The spelling of "Manhattan" is interesting in the poem. It is a spelling of the way that "Manhattan" used to be spelled in the past. This causes the past to be pushed into the future.

• Whitman has used parallelism in the poem to create a sense of rhythm and motion. He has repeated words again and again to almost mimic the ebb and flow of the ocean tide.

• There is a sense in the poem of style reflecting or permitting the content.