Reading Response 09/08

    Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

                                 By: Walt Whitman

In “Crossing Brooklyn” by Walt Whitman, he's sharing is personal feelings and experiences. I also felt like he was talking to his readers. He wanted to get his readers to feel how he felt about the  Brooklyn ferries in New York. I can tell before reading other parts of the poem that he was proud to be from New York or to be in New York. In the beginning of the poem he speaks calmly and then lively at the end. As I was reading, I wonder what made Whitman want to write about the Brooklyn ferries in New York. This poem in my opinion was a sit back and think poem. I think he wanted you to think about certain statements he was saying in the poem and to feel what he’s was feeling about he stated it. Whitman writing style in the poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferries” was in first person and repetition. I would mostly found this poem in the autography part of a book store or library.  There is one part of poem were Whitman he speaks in first person. For example, “What thought you have of me now, I had as much of you—I laid in my stories i advance, I consider’d log and seriously of you before you were born” He speaks in first using “I” three times in the seventh stanza of the poem. This quote shows how he personally because he’s sharing stories. Whitman also using repetition as another style of his poem. Whitman writes parts of this poem in repetition. This made the poem more engaging to read. It made me understand the points he was trying it get across to me as reader and to others. An example where he uses repetition is, “Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west and the heights of Brooklyn to south and east. What I understand from this quote is that he’s describing people entering the ferry and visions of what people on the ferry will see. It seems like he's saying whatever he sees on the ferry other people will also see. I think this was his way of connecting with people. What I found interesting was how Whitman representing New York or the boroughs of New York. He was bringing excited to the poem. For example, “Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers! Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!” What I get from this quote is that boat ride maybe over and he’s excited for the passengers to love Manhattan and Brooklyn. He represents the boroughs by saying stand up. Usually when people say stand up, this means to bring attention with excitement  to a borough as a representation that your from that borough. I think Whitman was expressing the wonderful opportunities New York has as a city. He’s excited to express that to his readers.