"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" by Walt Whitman

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"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" by Walt Whitman

Recurring Images and Motifs in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

In the poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" by Walt Whitman,

there are many recurring images and motifs that can be seen.

Whitman develops these images throughout the course of the

poem. The most dominant of these are the linear notion of

time, playing roles, and nature. By examining these motifs

and tracing their development, ones understanding of the poem

becomes highly deepened.

Whitman challenges the linear notion of time by

connecting past with future. This can be seen in the first

stanza, as the poem opens: "And you that shall cross from

shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my

meditations than you might suppose"(4-5). This lets the reader

know that he has written this with the reader in mind, even

before that reader existed. He challenges time by connecting

his time with ours. He has preconcived us reading this poem.

When we read his words we are connected to him and his feelings,

all in the same time. He is sure that after he is gone the water

will still run and people will still "see the shipping of

Manhattan/and the heights of Brooklyn" (14-15). He makes his past

and our futher all one.

No matter the time nor the distance, the reader will

experience the same way he experiences at the moment in time

he resides:

Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky...

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