Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” by Walt Whitman compares closest to Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers. In both poems, there are a lot of symbolisms and metaphors used. Both writers seem to be admonishing the reader to think more inwardly about life and circumstances of life. Dickinson expresses hope as a bird that’s song cannot be stopped. (“ ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers— / That perches in the soul—”), lines 1and 2. while Whitman in this poem seems to be asking the reader to not give up on hope in himself. Through passages such as. “I too had receiv’d identity by my Body;   That I was, I knew was of my body—and what I should be, I knew I should be of my body.”6th stanza lines 6 and 7, he lets the reader know it is ok to shun the pressures of society to conform. He emphasizes a self-rewarding life.  

Although in these two poems both writers have an expression of hope, their styles of sharing this expression are different. Dickinson being more of an introvert wrote in short phrases and sentences. She used misplaced capitalization to emphasize the importance of certain words and draw attention to those words. (D'Arienzo 197) Dickinson conformed more closely to writing styles of the time. In contrast Whitman introduced free verse to the poetry world. He did not conform to the set of rules that most romantics like himself did at the time. In This poem Whitman used an almost bullet form to express his emotions.

D'Arienzo, Daria. 2006. "Looking at Emily", Amherst Magazine. Winter 2006. Retrieved June 13, 2017.