Two Poets, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are probably two of the most influential people in American poetry. They are regarded as the founders modern American poetry. Walt Whitman (1819-1892), for the time was breaking new ground with his diverse, energetic verse with regards to subject matter, form and style whether talking about overlooked objects in nature such as a single blade of grass or even our own hearing. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) while living a life of seclusion, never really leaving her birthplace, was very adventurous internally. She was well read in English literature, often deeply exploring her own thoughts. While Dickinson and Whitman are referred to as the founders of modern American poetry, they are strikingly different. While Whitmans poems are large and expansive, the lines long and visually descriptive, Dickinsons works, in contrast, are highly compressed, squeezing moments of intense emotions and thought into tight four line stanzas which contract feeling and condense thought. If one was to compare Whitmans Crossing Brooklyn Ferry with works of Dickinsons such as After a great pain, a formal feeling comes And Remorse-is Memory-Awake, the differences with regards to the use of words to convey feelings or emotions becomes apparent between the two poets. In Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Whitman attempts to transcend time and place, The similitudes of the past and those of the future. This becomes even more apparent when the second stanza is read, when he speaks of others, Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore, Others will watch the run of the flood-tide, Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east. It is here that Whitman directly engages his audience and later he says, Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt. He strives to break down boundaries, abolish differences, and eliminate separateness. Whi...
