Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” is a free verse poem full of figurative language, such as imagery and metaphors to describe the scenario and convey the sensation of riding the Brooklyn Ferry. As Whitman describes his journey coming and going from shore to shore, he expresses how he’s felt the same thing others feel when they’re on the ferry. When he says, “I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence”, it came to mind the different generations who have also set foot right where he stands every, and the many generations to come that will do the same thing.
Through out the poem, Whitman gives the reader a clear image of what he is observing while he is on the Brooklyn Ferry. The way that he describes his surroundings is as if he is mesmerized by the sight, almost suggesting that the city offers one of the greatest topography he’s come across, and it its most pleasing to the eye. Whitman’s poem makes it seem as if everyone who sees these sights are mesmerized by them as well. Although the poem mostly offers positive feelings, there were parts of it that seemed gloomy. In the verse, “Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd”, Whitman addresses how he’s one in a crowd. However, this seems to be a a feeling of loneliness. Much like the poem we discussed in class, there can exists great solitude in being amongst a crowd. A person can be surrounded by many people, but still feel minuscule and lonesome. Nonetheless, as far as I can tell, Whitman still indicates that the people in the crowd seem familiar in a way. When he says, “Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes”, I concluded that because he is so observant of the things and people that surround him, he has probably seen them before on the same ferry. Overall, Whitman shows that throughout the different generations that have ridden the ferry, the feelings of each and every person relate in a way.
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