Flood tide below me! I watch you face to face; clouds of the west-Sun there half an hour high I see you also face to face. This poem begins with the speaker first noticing natural objects and then notices the passengers on the ferry. According to Whitman, the face of the crowds of people on the ferry expresses curiosity. His use of diction such as "usual costumes" describes the people in the ferry as actors or having a profession pertaining to a theatre. In lines 4-5 "On the ferry boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose and you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me and more in my meditations than you suppose". The speaker addresses that the crowds returning home are curious. It is as though the speaker gazes into the future. He describes this scene vividly not only about the men and women in usual costumes ,but, also makes an observation that other people will cross the ferry in the future just as others have already done. Whitman's tone concerns time and eternity. He contemplates the fact that future passengers will see the same sun and the same flow of tides. The phrases "are more to me" and "more in my meditations" shows that the speaker cares about past and future passengers who already did and is yet to ride the ferry. In the second stanza, the men, women and things on earth becomes his "Impalpable sustenance". In lines 10-11, "The current rushing so swiftly and swimming with me faraway the others that are to follow me the ties between me and them, the certainty of others, the life, love, sight hearing of others" Whitman accepts his disintegration from other people but also appreciates the idea that everyone is connected by certain emotions. The ferry is an image that may symbolize movement or unity; the group of men and women who ride it, who have ridden it and who will ride it brings unity and explores the relationship between various generations.