When we discussed Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” in seminar class today, I realized that my favorite part of the poem was the ninth stanza.  The speaker seems to be commanding nature to continue as it is, for the nature is what connects the generations and different people; time proceeds and the world changes, but the waves will still “cross from shore to shore countless crowds of passengers (stanza 9 line7)”.  In fact, this stanza reminded me of Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Brook”, in which the speaker, the brook, says, “I chatter, chatter as I flow To join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.”  The brook, and all of nature, connects generations.  People benefit from the brook, and when they pass on, their children, and eventually grandchildren will enjoy from the same water. Though I’m not really a conservationist, and I am guilty of throwing soda cans into the regular trash, these poems make me feel a little worried about our environment.  Trees are constantly being cut down to make room for more buildings, and we are losing a source of connection between generations.  So, “flow on river! (Whitman stanza 9, line 1)” “For men may come and men may go but [you] go on forever (Tennyson 11)”.