English 48B
3/11/2009
Walt Whitman
"Crowds of women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!"
Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem that does
not embody much structure, and can be hard to interpret or breakdown due to this fact. I had to read the poem several times, and there are still many parts of it that I feel are hard to understand. The poem seems to be Whitman questioning humanity or human tendencies, and the unrealistic expectations society expects from people. He addresses the reader directly, by using "you" to talk to us, which helps connect the reader, and allows the reader to attempt to see from his perspective. He also uses aspects of nature, such as hills and water, but describes them with human qualities (which could be considered a form of personification.) For example, when he asks the hills to "stand up", he is using nature to get through to sthe readerThe way he speaks to the reader through out the poem, with the use of metaphors, also appears distant, and he indirectly brings up issues to the reader (once again, for example using inanimate objects) about society and how he feels about humanity. The ferry itself is also a major metaphor of the book, and the fact that it moves from land to water, show the migration of humans, and how we migrate to different places, such as the different parts of land the ferry goes to.
The reason the quote stuck out to me is that to me, it was a line that deviated focused more on societal issues, as opposed to his more philisophical views that is throughout most of the poem. This quote in particular, I feel, conveys Whitman's views on how soc
iety forces people to mask or costume themselves in order to feel like they belong. For starters, he always addresses people as a whole population, or as a generalization. This is apparent in this passage when he mentions that the group of people are a "crowd", he fails to ever individualize anyone. He uses this to show that in society, we are rarely individualized ourselves. He wants to show that if people chose not to go against whats conventional, than other people, such as himself, cannot see us as standing out either. In this quote, is addresses the fact that woman particularly are required to wear a costumes. This is consistent with many other literary works of the times, for woman were, and in many ways still are, repressed and were expected to "wear costumes" that made them blend in with one another. He also mentions that this crowd of costumed women is "curious" to him, which shows that he doesn't understand why women continue to follow these conventional standards. He also describes that the costumes the women wear are unusual, which is somewhat ironic since he is describing the "typical femme attire". He finds that what most find the social norm, is strange. This could reflect his own personal "issue", which is his sexuality. Whitman is a known homosexual, and so the fact that it was considered unacceptable to be gay, is reflected in this quote in that he doesn't understand why people chose to hide their true selves behind the costumes that society expects.
Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem that does
not embody much structure, and can be hard to interpret or breakdown due to this fact. I had to read the poem several times, and there are still many parts of it that I feel are hard to understand. The poem seems to be Whitman questioning humanity or human tendencies, and the unrealistic expectations society expects from people. He addresses the reader directly, by using "you" to talk to us, which helps connect the reader, and allows the reader to attempt to see from his perspective. He also uses aspects of nature, such as hills and water, but describes them with human qualities (which could be considered a form of personification.) For example, when he asks the hills to "stand up", he is using nature to get through to sthe readerThe way he speaks to the reader through out the poem, with the use of metaphors, also appears distant, and he indirectly brings up issues to the reader (once again, for example using inanimate objects) about society and how he feels about humanity. The ferry itself is also a major metaphor of the book, and the fact that it moves from land to water, show the migration of humans, and how we migrate to different places, such as the different parts of land the ferry goes to.The reason the quote stuck out to me is that to me, it was a line that deviated focused more on societal issues, as opposed to his more philisophical views that is throughout most of the poem. This quote in particular, I feel, conveys Whitman's views on how soc
iety forces people to mask or costume themselves in order to feel like they belong. For starters, he always addresses people as a whole population, or as a generalization. This is apparent in this passage when he mentions that the group of people are a "crowd", he fails to ever individualize anyone. He uses this to show that in society, we are rarely individualized ourselves. He wants to show that if people chose not to go against whats conventional, than other people, such as himself, cannot see us as standing out either. In this quote, is addresses the fact that woman particularly are required to wear a costumes. This is consistent with many other literary works of the times, for woman were, and in many ways still are, repressed and were expected to "wear costumes" that made them blend in with one another. He also mentions that this crowd of costumed women is "curious" to him, which shows that he doesn't understand why women continue to follow these conventional standards. He also describes that the costumes the women wear are unusual, which is somewhat ironic since he is describing the "typical femme attire". He finds that what most find the social norm, is strange. This could reflect his own personal "issue", which is his sexuality. Whitman is a known homosexual, and so the fact that it was considered unacceptable to be gay, is reflected in this quote in that he doesn't understand why people chose to hide their true selves behind the costumes that society expects.
20/20 "he doesn't understand why people chose to hide their true selves behind the costumes that society expects." Which also applies to us all -- and for so many, many reasons?
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