From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge
By Hart Crane
How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest
The seagull’s wings shall dip and pivot him,
Shedding white rings of tumult, building high
Over the chained bay waters Liberty—Then, with inviolate curve, forsake our eyes
As apparitional as sails that cross
Some page of figures to be filed away;
—Till elevators drop us from our day …I think of cinemas, panoramic sleights
With multitudes bent toward some flashing scene
Never disclosed, but hastened to again,
Foretold to other eyes on the same screen;And Thee, across the harbor, silver paced
As though the sun took step of thee yet left
Some motion ever unspent in thy stride,—
Implicitly thy freedom staying thee!Out of some subway scuttle, cell or loft
A bedlamite speeds to thy parapets,
Tilting there momently, shrill shirt ballooning,
A jest falls from the speechless caravan.Down Wall, from girder into street noon leaks,
A rip-tooth of the sky’s acetylene;
All afternoon the cloud flown derricks turn …
Thy cables breathe the North Atlantic still.And obscure as that heaven of the Jews,
Thy guerdon … Accolade thou dost bestow
Of anonymity time cannot raise:
Vibrant reprieve and pardon thou dost show.O harp and altar, of the fury fused,
(How could mere toil align thy choiring strings!)
Terrific threshold of the prophet’s pledge,
Prayer of pariah, and the lover’s cry,Again the traffic lights that skim thy swift
Unfractioned idiom, immaculate sigh of stars,
Beading thy path—condense eternity:
And we have seen night lifted in thine arms.Under thy shadow by the piers I waited
Only in darkness is thy shadow clear.
The City’s fiery parcels all undone,
Already snow submerges an iron year …O Sleepless as the river under thee,
Vaulting the sea, the prairies’ dreaming sod,
Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend
And of the curveship lend a myth to God.
Summary of From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge
- Popularity of “From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge”: The poem ‘From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge’ was written by Hart Crane, a promising American poet, and author. The poem captures the beauty of Brooklyn Bridge during different times of the day. It also highlights how nature grabs man’s attention and makes them forget the other businesses. The poem deals with the phenomenon of man versus the natural world.
- “From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge”, As a Representative of Wonder: The poem explains the speaker’s awe and amazement while picturing the beauty of the Brooklyn bridge. It begins with a soothing scene when seagulls dip their wings in the water and fly toward the statue of liberty. To enhance the bridge’s beauty, the speaker talks about the shining sun and movement of the people and how the bridge connects them to the other end. However, the tone becomes sad in the fourth stanza when he witnesses somebody committing suicide at this lovely place. Also, he observes traffic light that remind him of eternity. He wonders that this bridge never sleeps and constantly transports people from one side to another side of the river. Giving this lifeless bridge spiritual importance, the speaker urges him to bridge the gap between religion and the modern world.
- Major Themes in “From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge: Man versus natural world, modernity versus religion, and wonder are the major themes of the poem. The speaker is amazed to see the bounties of nature offered by the Brooklyn Bridge. Using various literary and poetic elements, he carefully draws the pictures of his feeling; he makes his readers visualize and feel what he was feeling near the bridge. The bridge offers him various sweet and bitter experiences. To the people, it’s just a way that transports them from one side of the river to another side. However, for the speaker, it’s a magnanimous god-like figure. He thinks it can restore the lost spirit of the world. Thus, he requests him to direct these hollow people to the way they lost long ago.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge
literary devices are tools that create distinct themes, tones, and meanings in the poem. The analysis of the devices used in the poem is as follows.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /e/ and /o/ in “Terrific threshold of the prophet’s pledge” and the sound of /ee/ in “Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend.”
- Apostrophe: An apostrophe is a device used to call somebody or something from afar. Here, the poet has used apostrophe to call the bridge a mighty thing such as,
“O Sleepless as the river under thee,
Vaulting the sea, the prairies’ dreaming sod,
Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend
And of the curveship lend a myth to God.”
- Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /s/ in “sometime sweep.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, as the sound of /n/ and /t/ in “And we have seen night lifted in thine arms” and the sound of /t/ and /r/ in “Terrific threshold of the prophet’s pledge.”
- Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example:
“Then, with inviolate curve, forsake our eyes
As apparitional as sails that cross
Some page of figures to be filed away;
—Till elevators drop us from our day.”
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “Under thy shadow by the piers I waited”, “With multitudes bent toward some flashing scene,” and “Vaulting the sea, the prairies’ dreaming sod.”
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different in nature. The poet compares the flashing line of the bridge with the flashing scene of a movie in the third stanza where it is stated as,
“I think of cinemas, panoramic sleights
With multitudes bent toward some flashing scene.”
- Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. The poet has personified bridge in the opening lines of the poem such as,
“How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest
The seagull’s wings shall dip and pivot him.”
- Simile: It is a device Used to compare something with something else to make the meanings clear to the readers. Hart has used this device in the second stanza of the poem such as; “As apparitional as sails that cross.”
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. The bridge symbolizes modernity, joy, and satisfaction.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Diction and Tone: The poem shows descriptive diction with a serious and nostalgic tone.
- End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. Although this is an end rhyme poem, yet it contains rhyming words such as; “sod/God” and “bestow/show.”
- Free Verse: Free verse is a type of poetry that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter. This is a free-verse poem with no strict rhyme or meter.
- Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here each stanza is a quatrain as the first one.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are eleven stanzas in this poem with each having the same number of verses or lines.
Quotes to be Used
These lines from the poem ‘From the Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge’ are useful to quote while talking about the marvels of God.
“Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend
And of the curveship lend a myth to God.”
