{"id":157240,"date":"2020-04-06T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=157240"},"modified":"2020-03-30T10:44:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T09:44:46","slug":"crossing-brooklyn-ferry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/04\/crossing-brooklyn-ferry\/","title":{"rendered":"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
\nClouds of the west\u2014sun there half an hour high\u2014I see you also face to face.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!
\nOn the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose,
\nAnd you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.<\/span><\/p>\n

The impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours of the day,
\nThe simple, compact, well-join\u2019d scheme, myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated yet part of the scheme,
\nThe similitudes of the past and those of the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n

Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,
\nOthers will watch the run of the flood-tide,
\nOthers will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,
\nOthers will see the islands large and small;
\nFifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high,
\nA hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
\nWill enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.<\/span><\/p>\n

It avails not, time nor place\u2014distance avails not,
\nI am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
\nJust as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
\nJust as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
\nJust as you are refresh\u2019d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh\u2019d,
\nJust as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried.<\/span><\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n

What is it then between us?
\nWhat is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever it is, it avails not\u2014distance avails not, and place avails not,
\nI too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine,
\nI too walk\u2019d the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it,
\nI too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me<\/span><\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,
\nThe dark threw its patches down upon me also,
\nThe best I had done seem\u2019d to me blank and suspicious,
\nMy great thoughts as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre?
\nNor is it you alone who know what it is to be evil,
\nI am he who knew what it was to be evil,
\nI too knitted the old knot of contrariety,
\nBlabb\u2019d, blush\u2019d, resented, lied, stole, grudg\u2019d,
\nHad guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,
\nWas wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant,
\nThe wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me,
\nThe cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting,
\nRefusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these wanting,
\nWas one with the rest, the days and haps of the rest,
\nWas call\u2019d by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,
\nFelt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,
\nSaw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a word,
\nLived the same life with the rest, the same old laughing, gnawing, sleeping,<\/span><\/p>\n

Play\u2019d the part that still looks back on the actor or actress,
\nThe same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like,
\nOr as small as we like, or both great and small.<\/span><\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. <\/span><\/em>Wikipedia<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
\nClouds of the west\u2014sun there half an hour high\u2014I see you also face to face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":60264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868,1101],"class_list":["post-157240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry","tag-walt-whitman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}