Bila Lee
English 48B
March 12, 2009
Journal #19 Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Quote
“It avails not, time nor space – distance avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt …” (Whitman 22).
Summary
It is excerpted from stanza 3 of the poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Walt Whitman, or it should better refer to the anonymous narrator in the poem, travels across time and space to pass his message to us, to our next generation and generations thereafter. As stated in Spark Notes, the poetry “seeks to determine the relationship of human beings to one another across time and space. Whitman wonders what he means to the crowds of strangers he sees every day” (Spark). Set in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the poetry instantly gives me an impression of a fast-paced and crowded community. People, including the narrator who has to travel between two districts by ferry every day, meet many familiar faces but with a lack of interaction; and hence inspires Whitman to compose this excellent poem to speak to some unknown persons.
Responses
Walt Whitman is a significant and influential poet in the sense he promotes free verse. Free verse, according to Wikipedia and our class discussion, refers to poetry without “a strict pattern of rhyming” (Wikipedia) and no regular meter, line length and stanza pattern. Around the same period, Chinese Literature also promotes a new poetry writing style which is very like free verse that poets are freer in composing poems, and it is called the New Culture Movement. In my opinion, speaking to both Chinese and English poetry, it is ambivalent for a Literature beginner (like me!) to appreciate a free verse poem: on one hand, it somehow works like a short story or a free writing which comes with less literary implication from stanza to stanza; on the other hand, it does not provide a focusing central idea for me to follow and, honestly, Spark Note helps me a lot in digesting this assigned reading.
English 48B
March 12, 2009
Journal #19 Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Quote
“It avails not, time nor space – distance avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt …” (Whitman 22).
Summary
It is excerpted from stanza 3 of the poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Walt Whitman, or it should better refer to the anonymous narrator in the poem, travels across time and space to pass his message to us, to our next generation and generations thereafter. As stated in Spark Notes, the poetry “seeks to determine the relationship of human beings to one another across time and space. Whitman wonders what he means to the crowds of strangers he sees every day” (Spark). Set in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the poetry instantly gives me an impression of a fast-paced and crowded community. People, including the narrator who has to travel between two districts by ferry every day, meet many familiar faces but with a lack of interaction; and hence inspires Whitman to compose this excellent poem to speak to some unknown persons.Responses
Walt Whitman is a significant and influential poet in the sense he promotes free verse. Free verse, according to Wikipedia and our class discussion, refers to poetry without “a strict pattern of rhyming” (Wikipedia) and no regular meter, line length and stanza pattern. Around the same period, Chinese Literature also promotes a new poetry writing style which is very like free verse that poets are freer in composing poems, and it is called the New Culture Movement. In my opinion, speaking to both Chinese and English poetry, it is ambivalent for a Literature beginner (like me!) to appreciate a free verse poem: on one hand, it somehow works like a short story or a free writing which comes with less literary implication from stanza to stanza; on the other hand, it does not provide a focusing central idea for me to follow and, honestly, Spark Note helps me a lot in digesting this assigned reading.
Whitman explores the relationship between persons across time and space, thus everyone is possibly his target audience despite the fact that everything changes a lot. Last winter 
break, I travelled to the East Coast with my friends and I had been to Brooklyn and Manhattan, and I did also take a sightseeing water taxi in New York City (whoops, I forgot the name of that place) and another one in Boston. Refreshing the remarkable trip after reading “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” I gain a fresh insight when I was looking “on the river and the sky.” In our lifetime, we come across with various people, is it a random accident or a designated fate? Does it mean anything when I met the tour guide in the East Coast, I meet my friends here at Foothill College or I meet some strangers in McDonald’s? “In the day among crowds of people sometimes they came upon me” (Whitman 23), I guess a couple persons in the crowd may either positively or negatively influence us in a certain way – for instance, I am inspired when I meet some polite and educated people and I feel bad when I deal with some impolite and disgusting people. Though I have got no acquaintance with these strangers, I believe our interactions mean something to my life. As of myself, I was accepted by Foothill College and De Anza College two years ago and I finally chose Foothill – I know my host family, my instructors and my friends here, and hence I got a sweet memory of travelling to the East Coast; yet who knows what would happen to me if I chose De Anza College at that time? So I decide to enjoy and celebrate what I possess now, and play “the same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like.” Seize the day!
break, I travelled to the East Coast with my friends and I had been to Brooklyn and Manhattan, and I did also take a sightseeing water taxi in New York City (whoops, I forgot the name of that place) and another one in Boston. Refreshing the remarkable trip after reading “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” I gain a fresh insight when I was looking “on the river and the sky.” In our lifetime, we come across with various people, is it a random accident or a designated fate? Does it mean anything when I met the tour guide in the East Coast, I meet my friends here at Foothill College or I meet some strangers in McDonald’s? “In the day among crowds of people sometimes they came upon me” (Whitman 23), I guess a couple persons in the crowd may either positively or negatively influence us in a certain way – for instance, I am inspired when I meet some polite and educated people and I feel bad when I deal with some impolite and disgusting people. Though I have got no acquaintance with these strangers, I believe our interactions mean something to my life. As of myself, I was accepted by Foothill College and De Anza College two years ago and I finally chose Foothill – I know my host family, my instructors and my friends here, and hence I got a sweet memory of travelling to the East Coast; yet who knows what would happen to me if I chose De Anza College at that time? So I decide to enjoy and celebrate what I possess now, and play “the same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like.” Seize the day!
20/20 I'm glad you chose Foothill!
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