Three Poems On The Brooklyn Bridge


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Whitman

1 Flood-tide under me! I see you nose to nose!

Clouds of the west—solar there half an hour excessive—I see you additionally nose to nose.

Crowds of women and men attired within the standard costumes, how curious you might be to me!

On the ferry-boats the a whole lot and a whole lot that cross, returning residence, are extra curious to me than you suppose,

And also you that shall cross from shore to shore years therefore are extra to me, and extra in my meditations, than you may suppose.

2

The impalpable sustenance of me from all issues in any respect hours of the day,

The easy, compact, well-join’d scheme, myself disintegrated, each one disintegrated but a part of the scheme,

The similitudes of the previous and people of the long run,

The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the stroll on the street and the passage over the river,

The present speeding so swiftly and swimming with me distant,

The others which might be to comply with me, the ties between me and them,

The knowledge of others, the life, love, sight, listening to 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 transport of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,

Others will see the islands massive and small;

Fifty years therefore, others will see them as they cross, the solar half an hour excessive,

100 years therefore, or ever so many hundred years therefore, others will see them,

Will benefit from the sundown, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the ocean of the ebb-tide.

It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not,
I’m with you, you women and men of a era, or ever so many generations therefore,
Simply as you’re feeling while you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
Simply as any of you is certainly one of a dwelling crowd, I used to be certainly one of a crowd,
Simply as you might be refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the intense circulation, I used to be refresh’d,
Simply as you stand and lean on the rail, but hurry with the swift present, I stood but was hurried,
Simply as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.

Mayakovsky

Give, Coolidge,

a shout of pleasure!

I too will spare no phrases

about good issues.

Blush

at my reward,

go pink as our flag,

nonetheless

united-states

-of

-america you could be.

As a crazed believer

enters

a church,

retreats

right into a monastery cell,

austere and plain;

so I,

in graying night

haze,

humbly set foot

on Brooklyn Bridge.

As a conqueror presses

right into a metropolis

all shattered,

on cannon with muzzles

craning excessive as a giraffe—

so, drunk with glory,

desirous to stay,

I clamber,

in satisfaction,

upon Brooklyn Bridge.

As a silly painter

plunges his eye,

sharp and loving,

right into a museum madonna,

so I

from the close to skies

bestrewn with stars,

gaze

at New York

via the Brooklyn Bridge.

New York,

heavy and stifling

until night time,

has forgotten

its hardships

and top;

and solely

the family ghosts

ascend

within the lucid glow of its home windows.

Right here

the elevateds

drone softly.

And solely

their mild

droning

inform us:

right here trains

are crawling and rattling

like dishes

being cleared into a cabinet.

Whereas

a shopkeeper fetched sugar

from a mill

that appeared to challenge

out of the water—

the masts

passing underneath the bridge

appeared

no bigger than pins.

I’m proud

of simply this

mile of metal;

upon it,

my visions come to life, erect—

right here’s a combat

for building

as an alternative of favor,

an austere disposition

of bolts

and metal.

If

the top of the world

befall—

and chaos

smash out planet

to bits,

and what stays

will likely be

this

bridge, rearing above the mud of destruction;

then,

as large historical lizards

are rebuilt

from bones

finer than needles,

to tower in museums,

so,

from this bridge,

a geologist of the centuries

will succeed

in recreating

our up to date world.

He’ll say:

—Yonder paw

of metal

as soon as joined

the seas and the prairies;

from this spot,

Europe

rushed to the West,

scattering

to the wind

Indian feathers.

This rib

reminds us

of a machine—

simply think about,

would there be palms sufficient,

after planting

a metal foot

in Manhattan,

to yank

Brooklyn to oneself

by the lip?

By the cables

of electrical strands,

I acknowledge

the period succeeding

the steam age—

right here

males

had ranted

on radio.

Right here

males

had ascended

in planes.

For some,

life

right here

had no worries;

for others,

it was a protracted

and hungry howl.

From this spot,

jobless males

leapt

headlong

into the Hudson.

Now

my canvas

is unobstructed

because it stretches on cables of string

to the ft of the celebs.

I see:

right here

stood Mayakovsky,

stood,

composing verse, syllable by syllable.

I stare

as an Eskimo gapes at a prepare,

I seize on it

as a tick fastens to an ear.

Brooklyn Bridge—

sure . . .

That’s fairly a factor!

Crane

What number of dawns, chill from his rippling relaxation

The seagull’s wings shall dip and pivot him,

Shedding white rings of tumult, constructing excessive

Over the chained bay waters Liberty—

Then, with inviolate curve, forsake our eyes

As apparitional as sails that cross

Some web page of figures to be filed away;

—Until elevators drop us from our day …

I consider cinemas, panoramic sleights

With multitudes bent towards some flashing scene

By no means disclosed, however hastened to once more,

Foretold to different eyes on the identical display screen;

And Thee, throughout the harbor, silver paced

As if the solar took step of thee but left

Some movement 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 avenue midday leaks,

A rip-tooth of the sky’s acetylene;

All afternoon the cloud flown derricks flip …

Thy cables breathe the North Atlantic nonetheless.

And obscure as that heaven of the Jews,

Thy guerdon … Accolade thou dost bestow

Of anonymity time can not elevate:

Vibrant reprieve and pardon thou dost present.

O harp and altar, of the fury fused,

(How may mere toil align thy choiring strings!)

Terrific threshold of the prophet’s pledge,

Prayer of pariah, and the lover’s cry,

Once more the visitors lights that skim thy swift

Unfractioned idiom, immaculate sigh of stars,

Beading thy path—condense eternity:

And we now have seen night time lifted in thine arms.

Underneath thy shadow by the piers I waited

Solely in darkness is thy shadow clear.

The Metropolis’s fiery parcels all undone,

Already snow submerges an iron 12 months …

O Sleepless because the river underneath thee,

Vaulting the ocean, the prairies’ dreaming sod,

Unto us lowliest someday sweep, descend

And of the curveship lend a delusion to God.



Tatyana_v_727 , 2025-04-26 04:39:00

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