crossing brooklyn ferry
What I promis'd without mentioning it, have you not accepted? Blabb’d, blush’d, resented, lied, stole, grudg’d. Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not. Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me. The men and women I saw were all near to me. Ah, what can ever be more stately and admirable to me than mast-hemm’d Manhattan? be duly lower’d at sunset! 9:30PM–10:15PM : 10pm: Oneohtrix Point Never. Gorgeous clouds of the sun-set! Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back to the sea of the ebb-tide. bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers; Expand, being than which none else is perhaps more spiritual; Keep your places, objects than which none else is more lasting. The dark threw its patches down upon me also. I too saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is one of the masterpieces in Leaves of Grass. This sense of repetition and revisiting reinforces the thematic content of the poem, which looks at the possibility of continuity within humanity based on common experiences. Play the old role, the role that is great or small according as one makes it! On the ferry-boats, the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose. fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in the air; Receive the summer sky, you water! Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman is the author of Leaves of Grass and, along with Emily Dickinson, is considered one of the architects of a uniquely American poetic voice. He begins by describing his surroundings: the water below, the clouds, the sunrise, and therefore the commuters around him. 1.OF the visages of things—And of piercing through to the accepted hells beneath;Of ugliness—To me there is just as much in it as there is in beauty—And now the ugliness of human beings is acceptable to me;Of detected persons—To me, detected persons are not, in any respect, worse than undetected per- sons—and are not in any respect worse than I am myself;Of criminals—To me, any judge, or any juror, is equally criminal—and any reputable person is also—and the President is also.2.OF waters, forests, hills;Of the earth at large, whispering through medium of me;Of vista—Suppose some sight in arriere, through the formative chaos, presuming the growth, fulness, life, now attain'd on the journey;(But I see the road continued, and the journey ever continued;)Of what was once lacking on earth, and in due time has become supplied—And of what will yet be supplied,Because all I see and know, I believe to have purport in what will yet be supplied.3.OF persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth, scholarships, and the like;To me, all that those persons have arrived at, sinks away from them, except as it results to their Bodies and Souls,So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked;And often, to me, each one mocks the others, and mocks himself or herself,And of each one, the core of life, namely happiness, is full of the rotten excrement of maggots,And often, to me, those men and women pass unwit- tingly the true realities of life, and go toward false realities,And often, to me, they are alive after what custom has served them, but nothing more,And often, to me, they are sad, hasty, unwaked son- nambules, walking the dusk.4.OF ownership—As if one fit to own things could not at pleasure enter upon all, and incorporate them into himself or herself;Of Equality—As if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—As if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same;Of Justice—As if Justice could be anything but the same ample law, expounded by natural judges and saviors,As if it might be this thing or that thing, according to decisions.5.As I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while the music is playing,To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral, in mist, of a wreck at sea,Of the flower of the marine science of fifty generations, founder'd off the Northeast coast, and going down—Of the steamship Arctic going down,Of the veil'd tableau—Women gather'd together on deck, pale, heroic, waiting the moment that draws so close—O the moment!O the huge sob—A few bubbles—the white foam spirting up—And then the women gone,Sinking there, while the passionless wet flows on— And I now pondering, Are those women indeed gone?Are Souls drown'd and destroy'd so?Is only matter triumphant?6.OF what I write from myself—As if that were not the resumé;Of Histories—As if such, however complete, were not less complete than my poems;As if the shreds, the records of nations, could possibly be as lasting as my poems;As if here were not the amount of all nations, and of all the lives of heroes.7.OF obedience, faith, adhesiveness;As I stand aloof and look, there is to me something profoundly affecting in large masses of men, following the lead of those who do not believe in men. It symbolizes continual movement, backward and forward, a universal motion in space and time. By Walt Whitman. would not people laugh at me? I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Form and Meter. Leaves of Grass Crossing Brooklyn Ferry By Walt Whitman diction biography (cont'd) Without two exceptions, all of Whitman's poems in Leaves of Grass are written in free-verse and do not follow the typical poetic pattern of many of his contemporaries Whitman chooses to use play the part that looks back on the actor or actress! Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me! The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses. Live, old life! From the general centre of all, and forming a part of all: Everything indicates—the smallest does, and the largest does; A necessary film envelopes all, and envelopes the Soul for a proper time. Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow. fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in the air; Receive the summer sky, you water! "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem about a man taking the Brooklyn ferry home from Manhattan at the end of a working day. In Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-2), he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem by Walt Whitman, and is part of his collection Leaves of Grass. Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a word. play the part that looks back on the actor or actress! play the part that looks back on the actor or actress!Play the old role, the role that is great or small, according as one makes it! What is it, then, between us? I watch you face to face; Clouds of the west! Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide. What I promis'd without mentioning it, have you not accepted? Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant. Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg'd waves! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide! The simple, compact, well-join’d scheme, myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated yet part of the scheme. The major image in the poem is the ferry. What gods can exceed these that clasp me by the hand, and with voices I love call me promptly and loudly by my nighest name as I approach? Free Verse. On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose. The sailors at work in the rigging or out astride the spars. Was call’d by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing. Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd. Others the same—others who look back on me because I look’d forward to them, (The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.). Gorgeous clouds of the sun-set! Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house, or street, or public assembly! And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence, are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose. It was substantially revised in 1881. The ferries It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil; I too knitted the old knot of contrariety. The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day; The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme—myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme: 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. I too many and many a time cross'd the river, the sun half an hour high; I watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls—I saw them high in the air, floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies. The methods that helped Whitman grasp his own idea of the importance of life are defined with… Closer yet I approach you; What thought you have of me, I had as much of you—I laid in my stores in advance;I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were born. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Poem by Walt Whitman. The impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours of the day. Play’d the part that still looks back on the actor or actress. The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage over the river. Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing, sleeping. Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east. Form and Meter. It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not. It describes the ferry trip across the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn at the exact location that was to become the Brooklyn Bridge. I loved well those cities, loved well the stately and rapid river. On the neighboring shore the fires from the foundry chimneys burning high and glaringly into the night. I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution;I too had receiv'd identity by my Body; That I was, I knew was of my body—and what I should be, I knew I should be of my body. 1 thought on “ Crossing Brooklyn Ferry ” proftoth on April 1, 2012 at 3:17 pm said: Christie, This is a solid post on Whitman’s use of repetition in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” I agree that repetition is one of Whitman’s most effective formal devices. The impalpable sustenance of me from all things, at all hours of the day; The simple, compact, well-join'd scheme—myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated, yet part of the scheme: 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. 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. Source for information on Crossing Brooklyn Ferry: American History Through Literature 1820-1870 dictionary. Shopping. be duly lower'd at sunset; Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta! Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution! Watch later. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Summary: In this poem, the speaker describes his daily commute on a ferry running between Brooklyn and Manhattan. sun there half an hour high! Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is nothing but a symbol that we are all connected. What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore. I watch you face to face; Clouds of the west! Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me. A sonnet stands tall where the ungoverned waters of literature meet the strict land of law. The poem’s central theme relates to the shared human experiences that transcend both time and space. The Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Online Critical Edition is an interactive, multi-media approach to Walt Whitman's famous poem. The same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like. Nor is it you alone who know what it is to be evil. Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you; Be firm, rail over the river, to support those who lean idly, yet haste with the hasting current; Fly on, sea-birds! We understand, then, do we not? My great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre? I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence. Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me! Lived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing, sleeping. I see you face to face! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide! Not a few races, nor a few generations, nor a few centuries; It is that each came, or comes, or shall come, from its due emission. Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg'd waves! cast black shadows at nightfall! Reading could not start, is started by me personally, is started by me personally, accomplish! 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