- In an age before subways, commuter rail, cars, and buses, Walt Whitman celebrates the commute by ferry across the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan in his poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” He draws connections between himself and the fellow New Yorkers he encounters, he imagines this connection extending to the people who take the journey in the past and in the future, and this all prompts him to discover things about his relationship to the mass of people living in the city. How does this depiction of what was a simple, daily commute compare with your experience of commuting to work, home, and campus today? Discuss at least three points of connection with the poem.
- In “On Broadway,” Claude McKay describes the thoroughfare as vibrant and full of life, yet the speaker of the poem is not. How does McKay create this contrast, and why is it significant?
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