Crossing_Brooklyn_Ferry

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” Uncovered 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, one's understanding of the poem becomes intensely deepened. Whitman destroys the linear subsistence 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 Whitman has written this with the reader in mind, even before that reader existed. He challenges time by connecting his time with ours. He has predicted us reading this poem. poem, same, time, whitman, roles, role, nature, reader, humans, years, playing, play, people, one, stanza, sea-birds, part, old, look, long, life, images, brooklyn, after, whitman’s, water, unlike, understanding, tracing, small, sky, read, motifs, motif, just, hence, continue, yet, writing, way, trying, through, taking, take, stay, shore, seen, saw, river, recurring, ferry