Note to absent students: We started reading the poetry of Walt Whitman in class on Thursday/Friday. I handed out packets of his poetry; you will be taking notes directly on the packet throughout the unit. If you were absent and don't yet have the packet, you can read "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" online here (it's a long poem, so make sure you allow plenty of time).
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” Notetaking
Please consider the following questions as you read, re-read, and annotate (mark up) the poem. Your annotations should reflect your thoughts about these questions as well as your own ideas/responses/questions about the poem.
- To whom is the poem primarily addressed?
- Look up the word “centrifugal” in a dictionary if you don’t know what it means. Then comment on the imagery of section 3, stanza 4, line 3 and section 11, line 16.
- In what ways does this poem reflect the precepts of Transcendentalism? (Try to find at least three connections.)
- How is section 11 different from the rest of the poem?
- What does Whitman seem to be saying about the soul and the body? About human nature? About the universe?
- Try to find examples of literary devices like alliteration, sibilance, assonance, consonance, repetition, apostrophe, etc. Mark them, and then comment on why Whitman uses them—what effect do they have?
- Look for different types of sensory imagery: visual, aural, olfactory, gustatory, tactile. What type of imagery predominates? What is the effect of that imagery?
