New York is one of the most beautiful cities in the world which is why people from all over come to visit it year after year. Walt Whitman really captures the essence of this one of a kind city in his poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry".
Whitman finds himself observing not only the scenery from the ferry but also all the different types of people who are on it. Even in such a big city, Whitman notices that despite everyone being on the ferry together, they're in their own world. He says, "The simple, compact, well-joined scheme, myself disintegrated, everyone disintegrated yet part of the scheme". The idea here being that everyone is, "In the same boat" so to speak. (No pun intended). Since the city is rapidly growing during the time the poem was written, chances are the majority of people on the ferry are probably going to or coming home from work which makes them all similar.
At the same time Whitman hints at why everyone might be in their own little world on the ferry. New York is such a beautiful place that everyone may just be taking in the scenery. The sun seems to be setting in this poem and we see this not only in the second line of the poem ("Clouds of the west-- sun there half an hour high) but also in the 6th stanza. He mentions the sea-gulls chasing the sunset, the reflection of the sky in the water and sailors working on their ships which really sets a peaceful tone in the poem. But, he ties this serenity back to the industrial city at the end of the stanza when he says, "Casting their flicker of black contrasted with wild red and yellow light over the tops of houses, and down into the clefts of streets."The black being smoke produced by the chimney's in the city.
Whitman also shows just how such a big city can really change people. In the
beginning of the 11th stanza he is talking about how the city can really
beat people up and how mentally challenging it can be. But by the end of
the stanza he is showing that if you stay true to who you are, you'll
be able to bypass those character traits. We know this is how he feels
because in the middle of the stanza he says, "I am he who knew what it
was to be evil", but by the end of the stanza he shows how it just
wasn't who he was by saying, "The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me". All three animals representing big business at the time. The wolf being aggressive businessmen, the snake being traitors and the hog being people profiting off corruption.
1 comment:
I also believe that although all passengers are together, they are also alone. I talked upon that that in my response as it had a similar message to the reading in class. This idea of being unintentionally connected seemed to be a common theme throughout the poem.
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