“To Brooklyn Bridge” Introduction

• Read the full text of “To Brooklyn Bridge”

“To Brooklyn Bridge” Summary

“To Brooklyn Bridge” Themes

• 

  Freedom, Joy, and Transcendence

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-44
• 

  Human Connection and the Modern City

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Line 5
  • Line 8
  • Lines 9-12
  • Lines 17-20
  • Lines 25-28
  • Lines 31-32
  • Line 36
  • Lines 41-44
• 

  Love, Death, and Eternity

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 17-20
  • Lines 25-26
  • Line 32
  • Lines 33-36
  • Lines 37-38
  • Lines 41-44

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “To Brooklyn Bridge”

• Lines 1-4

  How many dawns, ...
  ... bay waters Liberty—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Then, with inviolate ...
  ... day . . .

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  I think of ...
  ... the same screen;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  And Thee, across ...
  ... freedom staying thee!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  Out of some ...
  ... the speechless caravan.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  Down Wall, from ...
  ... North Atlantic still.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  And obscure as ...
  ... thou dost show.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-32

  O harp and ...
  ... the lover's cry,—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-36

  Again the traffic ...
  ... in thine arms.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-40

  Under thy shadow ...
  ... year . . .

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 41-44

  O Sleepless as ...
  ... myth to God.

  

  

  

  

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“To Brooklyn Bridge” Symbols

• 

  The Bridge

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 13-44

“To Brooklyn Bridge” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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  Where apostrophe appears in the poem:

  • Lines 13-44

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Line 1
  • Lines 3-4
  • Lines 5-7
  • Line 9
  • Lines 13-15
  • Line 18
  • Line 19
  • Line 20
  • Line 21
  • Line 22
  • Lines 23-24
  • Lines 25-27
  • Lines 29-30
  • Line 31
  • Line 32
  • Lines 33-35
  • Line 36
  • Line 39
  • Line 40
  • Line 42

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “chill,” “his rippling”
  • Line 2: “wings,” “dip,” “pivot him”
  • Line 3: “Shedding,” “white,” “rings,” “building,” “high”
  • Line 4: “chained bay”
  • Line 5: “inviolate,” “eyes”
  • Line 7: “page,” “away”
  • Line 14: “step,” “yet left”
  • Line 15: “ever unspent,” “thy stride”
  • Line 16: “thy,” “freedom,” “thee”
  • Line 17: “some subway scuttle”
  • Line 19: “Tilting,” “shrill”
  • Line 21: “street,” “leaks”
  • Line 30: “align thy choiring”
  • Line 31: “threshold,” “pledge”
  • Line 33: “traffic,” “skim,” “swift”
  • Line 34: “Unfractioned,” “idiom,” “immaculate”
  • Line 36: “night,” “thine”
  • Line 41: “Sleepless,” “thee”
  • Line 42: “sea,” “dreaming”
  • Line 43: “descend”
  • Line 44: “lend”

• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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  Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-44

• Personification

  

  

  

  

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  Where personification appears in the poem:

  • Line 16: “Implicitly thy freedom staying thee!”
  • Lines 24-28: “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.”
  • Line 36: “And we have seen night lifted in thine arms.”
  • Lines 41-44: “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.”

“To Brooklyn Bridge” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Rippling rest
• Pivot
• Tumult
• Chained bay waters
• Liberty
• Inviolate
• Forsake
• Apparitional
• Page of figures
• Panoramic
• Sleights
• Multitudes
• Disclosed
• Hastened
• Silver-paced
• Thee/thou/thy/thine
• The harbor
• Ever
• Implicitly
• Staying
• Loft
• Scuttle
• Cell
• Bedlamite
• Parapets
• Momently
• Shrill shirt
• Jest
• Caravan
• Wall
• Girder
• Rip-tooth
• Acetylene
• Derricks
• Cloud-flown
• Cables
• Heaven of the Jews
• Guerdon
• Accolade
• Bestow
• Reprieve
• The fury
• Choiring strings
• Terrific
• Prophet's pledge
• Pariah
• Unfractioned
• Idiom
• The piers
• Fiery parcels
• Submerges
• The river under thee
• Sod
• Lowliest
• Curveship

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “To Brooklyn Bridge”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“To Brooklyn Bridge” Speaker

“To Brooklyn Bridge” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “To Brooklyn Bridge”

More “To Brooklyn Bridge” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poet's Life — A biography of Crane at the Poetry Foundation.

  • Modernism 101 — An introduction to the groundbreaking poetic movement with which Crane was associated.

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of "To Brooklyn Bridge."

  • Crane on "The Logic of Metaphor" — Crane's explanation of his dense poetic style, which conveys much of its meaning through "connotations" and metaphorical associations, as opposed to the "logically rigid" definitions of words.

  • A Hart Crane Documentary — Watch a short film about Crane from the Voices and Visions series.