“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” Relevance

Walt Whitman’s message to the readers of the future is a powerful reminder that the people of today and the people of yesterday are eternally connected in ways more than just time. Whitman tries to convince the reader that what he sees, feels, and thinks as he takes the Brooklyn ferry to Manhattan is much the same as what others experience and what the people of the future will. He talks of the masses of people with him, the movement of the sea, the clouds, the hills of Brooklyn, the streets of Manhattan, flags of different nations, freight ships, sea-gulls, etc. These indeed should all be familiar sights to New Yorkers. People today like generations ago approach Manhattan en masse and feel feelings of romanticism. They see many of the sights, think many of the thoughts, and feel many of the feelings Whitman has at one point.

I found this poem to have very important messages. Personally, I can say myself I have had romantic ideas and feelings for the city, especially when I first approached it from the Manhattan bridge by train. It’s also hard to forget the day I walked to the city at night through the Brooklyn Bridge. Even at night there are many people.

I think people today like to ignore history or like to think that the people of generations or decades prior were very different from who we are today. People like to think that because of technology and education we are overall superior to the people that lived before us. People today overestimate their abilities and think they are at the highest point of human evolution. I could be wrong but this is the vibe I feel from modern society. There is definitely a culture of arrogance that exists today that I am not sure always existed. Maybe each generation has people who think they know better or are better than their ancestors and then repeat the same mistakes or make mistakes successfully avoided before . To me, this poem is a reminder that the people living 150 years are not very different from us today. Although it doesn’t seem like it, people do not change much generation to generation.