Today, we learned about how a time period affects the works of a writer, took a closer look at Whitman’s poem Crossing Brooklyn Ferry and compared it to “Hard Rains Are A-Falling,” by Bob Dylan. Whitman was an American poet that composed his poems during the post civil war era. This time period consisted of Reconstruction in the South and mourning across America for the loss of Abraham Lincoln. A lot of Whitman’s works have patriotism in them. One poem that I have read before that embodies this patriotism is O’Captain My Captain. This poem is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln after his assassination and it a prime example of the effects that the era had on his writing.

Whitman’s poem Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is a very descriptive poem. Whitman’s central image of the poem is the seagulls. He refers to them many times and focused on them because they are free-spirited. There are a lot of references between light and darkness, which creates a duality. Anaphora is also predominant in this poem and is used in a way to slow you down as you read it. It also contributes to the overall feel of the poem which is a rocking feeling. At the end of class, I was able to listen to Bob Dylan for the first time, which was nice and I enjoyed listening to more of his music when I got home. While listening to “Hard Rains Are A-Falling” in class, it was interesting to see the relationship between Whitman and Dylan’s repetition and the kinds of images that are used. Both the song and the poem have a rocking feeling to them due to the repetition. Also, Dylan’s song contains a lot of juxtaposition between uplifting and frightening images, which creates a duality like in Whitman’s poem.