To Brooklyn Bridge

How do you feel when you see a grand bridge hovering across a great body of water? Are you amazed at the power of engineering, design, and infrastructure? Or are you overwhelmed by the imposing image of stability and peace? In the poem "To Brooklyn Bridge," the American poet Hart Crane (1899‐1932) investigates the image of the Brooklyn Bridge as a symbol of both modernity and serenity, connecting the busy rush of city life to the boundless bliss of heaven and nature.

Fig. 1 - The Brooklyn Bridge connects Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York City. When it opened in 1883, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Background Information

"To Brooklyn Bridge" (1930) is a poem by the American Modernist poet Hart Crane. The poem is one of 15 poems that make up an epic poem entitled, The Bridge (1930). The Bridge details the poet's idea of the American experience in various poetic styles. "To Brooklyn Bridge" is the opening poem of the collection. It presents the poem's central symbol, the bridge, as a sign of the modern world that offers strength and peace.

Hart Crane wrote poetry contrary to the cynicism of the urbanist, industrial word presented in T.S. Eliot's seminal Modernist poem, The Waste Land (1922). Crane saw hope and light within the modernized world that many other poets of his time did not.

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Poem

Here is the full poem of "To Brooklyn Bridge":

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Poem Summary

Below is a stanza by stanza summary of the poem, "To Brooklyn Bridge" by Hart Crane. The poem weaves together imagery of city life, nature, and heaven by depicting how this New York City bridge interacts with its surroundings.

Stanzas 1 & 2: Summary

The poet writes that the bridge has seen many dawns. He paints a picture of the bridge with seagulls flying around it in a noisy mass, forming "white rings of tumult" in the sky (3). The birds fly over the bridge which crosses the East River of New York City. The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the view of the bay and the bridge.

The poet depicts the bridge fading out of view like the sails of a traveling boat or a paper that is filed away. The curve and view of the bridge disappear as the people become immersed in their day-to-day city life and work, where "elevators drop us from our day" (8).

Fig. 2 - The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom and hope of opportunity for immigrants to America. Hart Crane portrays the bridge similarly as an imposing image of strength, freedom, and hope.

Stanza 3 & 4: Summary

The poet compares the view of the bridge to a shot on a movie theater screen. An audience of people watches the bridge, which can be seen and experienced by them all in a slightly different way.

Regardless of the changing ways the Brooklyn Bridge may be presented, it maintains a sense of dignity and presents a sense of freedom that resonates with the American ethos. The poet personifies the bridge as a pacing, striding person who has caught the sunlight and stands with pride.

Stanza 5 & 6: Summary

The poem picks up pace and intensity as the poet depicts a crazy man running out of the bustle and constriction of the city to jump over the low wall of the bridge. He depicts the man falling with his "shrill shirt ballooning" (19) like a parachute as a man in a car watches and makes a joke.

The poet describes how below the bridge the city streets reek of foul smells. The sunlight peeks through jagged shadows. Construction ensues as the cranes turn and the cables of the bridge breathe in the North Atlantic.

Stanza 7 & 8: Summary

The poet compares the bridge to the "obscure...heaven of the Jews" (25). The poem takes on a prophetic tone as the poet describes how the bridge grants the rewards of "anonymity" (27), relief from punishment, and forgiveness.

The poet compares the cables and road of the bridge to a "harp and alter" (29). He emphasizes amazement at the fact that the cables are so perfectly aligned. The perfection of the bridge's design amounts to the heavenly sound of the "choiring strings" of the harp (30). The bridge is an image of the perfection of creation, depicted as a place of safety for outcasts who may wander or live below it.

Stanza 9 & 10: Summary

The poet compares the lights on the bridge to a pathway of stars leading to a picture of heavenly "eternity" (35). He personifies the bridge as lifting the night up in its arms.

The speaker then places himself in the poem, stating that he waited under the bridge's "shadow by the piers" (38). He finds clarity in the darkness under the bridge as the year ends and winter's snow "submerges" time (40).

Stanza 11: Summary

The poet depicts the bridge as something that never sleeps but always stands, "Vaulting the sea" (24). The speaker asks the bridge to "sweep" down and "descend" on the lowly people as a reminder of the connection between earthly life and God (43).

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Poem Meaning

The poem "To Brooklyn Bridge" conveys the meaning that the Brooklyn Bridge is a symbol of peace, hope, and strength amidst the busy, distracted nature of city life. The poet depicts how something modern and man-made can still evoke natural beauty—and even God. The bridge has an imposing, inspiring physical presence that exudes a spiritual quality.

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Poem Analysis of Form

"To Brooklyn Bridge" is a lyrical ode written in 11 quatrains.

Hart Crane writes in seemingly structured stanzas; however, he experiments with meter, tone, and rhyme throughout the poem as he describes the Brooklyn Bridge from a series of different perspectives.

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Meter and Rhyme

The poem has no regular meter or rhyme scheme. However, Hart Crane uses internal and end rhymes, and the meter frequently falls into iambic pentameter, as seen in the poem's last line. Let's take a look at the last stanza of the poem to understand how Crane uses rhyme and iambic pentameter in his poem:

The poem falls into a sleepy dream with the swing of the simple rhymes, and it falls into a steady pace with the last line written in pure iambic pentameter. The use of iambic pentameter evokes more traditional poetry and grounds the poem in the final image and idea of the bridge as a link between the earthly and spiritual worlds.

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Literary Devices

The poem features numerous literary devices, including symbolism, contrast, apostrophe, personification, imagery, simile, alliteration, and sibilance.

Symbolism and Contrast

In the poem, the seagulls and the bridge are both symbols of freedom. The seagulls symbolize the freedom and chaos of life and the natural world as it tries to coexist with modernity. The poet writes, "The seagull's wings shall dip and pivot him, / Shedding white rings of tumult, building high / Over the chained bay waters Liberty" (2‐4).

The poet presents the contrast between freedom and the confinement of city life. The seagulls fly between the bridge and above the high buildings and "chained bay waters." Crane presents the conflicts of urban life with a chaotic, crowded, busyness that characterizes it.

The Brooklyn Bridge is a symbol of freedom, peace, strength, stability, and hope, which balances the chaos of the city. The sight of the bridge evokes peace as it powerfully stands across the waters and facilitates the bustle of city life, providing calm and support. The bridge also symbolizes how modernity can facilitate life and beauty. In the poem, the sight of the bridge evokes feelings similar to viewing a sunset or the dawn.

"To Brooklyn Bridge": Poem Theme

The poem explores the themes of nature and modernity and spirituality and religion.

Nature and Modernity

In the poem, nature and modernity are introduced side by side through the initial image of the bridge at dawn with the seagulls flying around it. Rather than producing a strict contrast between the natural world and the urban, industrialized city, Hart Crane interweaves the imagery of nature and modernity. While the bridge is a constructed thing, it interacts with the sea, the birds, the sun, and the people. It is a symbol of hope that lends stability to a bustling, ever-changing, unstable city. Through the poem "To Brooklyn Bridge," Crane presents modernity as something that can be beautiful and inspire and facilitate daily life. The bridge is a platform for human experience and understanding of the natural world.

Spirituality and Religion

Hart Crane also presents the bridge as something that evokes a sense of spirituality. In the second half of the poem, he writes about it in prophetic, religious language. He compares the bridge and its cables to an altar and the strings of a harp. The poem describes the lights as stars and paints a picture of "stars, Beading thy path" to "condense eternity" (34‐35). As the bridge is something that reaches high into the sky and hovers above the water, it is closer to the heavens.

The poet uses personification to relate the bridge to God, describing it as something that has compassion and mercy towards its people and embraces the night sky. The speaker of the poem wants the bridge to reach down to the outcasts and lost people of the city to provide a link or reminder of heavenly hope, beauty, and life.

Fig. 3 - Hart Crane compares the cables of the bridge to the strings of a harp. The harp evokes the sound of heavenly music and associations with angels and the Bible.