An Analysis of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”
An Analysis of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”
By Austin Cooley
ENGL 2027 – 007
In “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” the story follows the narrator’s experience with life as he takes a beautiful ferry ride. The man talks about the meaning of his life to other people. In this crowd he brings together all of the strangers and finds a connection. His journey through “space and time” is focused on the people. In the first sections, Whitman sets the scene by describing his surroundings. He personifies a few objects, thus, making them more relatable to the people he is surrounded by. He feels connected to a pattern larger than himself, and how the past and the future resemble each other. And so he gets into the real question of his musings: how is it that we are all connected? What is it that binds us?
Walt Whitman asks himself and the reader of the poem what significance a person's life holds in the scope of densely populated planet. The poem explores the difficulties of discovering the relevance of life. The methods that helped Whitman grasp his own idea of the importance of life are defined with some simple yet insightful and convincing observations. By living under and for the standards of others, a person can never live a fulfilling life. Distinguishing oneself from the mobs of society can be next to impossible when every other human is competing for the same recognition with their own similar accomplishments. The suggestion that Whitman offers as a means of becoming distinguished, or obtaining an identity, is to live a life of self-satisfaction. The persuasive devices in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” successfully communicate Whitman's own theory of breaking the molds of society by living as a self-satisfying individual.
What makes one person's life different from the next? Whitman leaves the apprehension that the distinguishing characteristics are few. Whitman informs the audience that he has lead the same life as they, who lead the same
By Austin Cooley
ENGL 2027 – 007
In “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” the story follows the narrator’s experience with life as he takes a beautiful ferry ride. The man talks about the meaning of his life to other people. In this crowd he brings together all of the strangers and finds a connection. His journey through “space and time” is focused on the people. In the first sections, Whitman sets the scene by describing his surroundings. He personifies a few objects, thus, making them more relatable to the people he is surrounded by. He feels connected to a pattern larger than himself, and how the past and the future resemble each other. And so he gets into the real question of his musings: how is it that we are all connected? What is it that binds us?
Walt Whitman asks himself and the reader of the poem what significance a person's life holds in the scope of densely populated planet. The poem explores the difficulties of discovering the relevance of life. The methods that helped Whitman grasp his own idea of the importance of life are defined with some simple yet insightful and convincing observations. By living under and for the standards of others, a person can never live a fulfilling life. Distinguishing oneself from the mobs of society can be next to impossible when every other human is competing for the same recognition with their own similar accomplishments. The suggestion that Whitman offers as a means of becoming distinguished, or obtaining an identity, is to live a life of self-satisfaction. The persuasive devices in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” successfully communicate Whitman's own theory of breaking the molds of society by living as a self-satisfying individual.
What makes one person's life different from the next? Whitman leaves the apprehension that the distinguishing characteristics are few. Whitman informs the audience that he has lead the same life as they, who lead the same