Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”

Luke Spencer (University of Leeds)

Ed. by Matthew Hofer, University of New Mexico
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1860

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem

Resources

“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” was so named in the third edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1860. It had first appeared in the previous edition (1856) under the title “Sun-Down Poem”, but Whitman renamed it, along with other earlier poems, when the prospect of a greatly expanded third edition gave him scope for significant changes, not the least of which was the ordering and grouping of both old and new poems according to more deliberately thematic principles.

Rightly described as Whitman’s “best-known urban poem” (Reynolds, p.109), “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” offers an especially revealing view of the cities on either side of the East River. Whitman was a frequent &…

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1842 words

Citation: Spencer, Luke. "“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 June 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38850, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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