I Can Feel You All Around Me, Circling the Air I'm Breathing

                   Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry", from his book Leaves of Grass, is phenomenal at depicting the world we live with such descriptive narration.  It proved impossible for me to not apply his imagery to my own life. These are just of my observations of the world in relation to his. 


1. "Sea-gull, saw high in the air floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies" (Whitman 1). Whitman describes seagulls in such poetic terms. I, on the other hand, see less beauty in these creatures. Although their flight is pretty, Whitman failed to mention their awful attitudes. I had two seagull memories that pop-out in my mind. One was on a family vacation in North Carolina in the Outer Banks. It was summertime and we were one the beach. My parents thought it would be so perfect to feed the seagulls. Never again will I make this mistake. After I threw the first piece of bread, it was all over for me. The seagulls attacked me, with their majestic flight seemingly to cause me to have a heart attack, and I was left fleeing for what seemed to be my life leaving the loaf of bread for them to fight over. My second memory involves seeing the flight of a seagull up close. I was on a field trip in elementary school. We were on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay learning about the sea creatures. A seagull flew over us and the guide pointed out the beauty of its figure and such. In return, the seagull pooped all over the ship and us. Long story short, I remember nothing from that field trip except the angry, pooping bird. 


2. Whitman describes the port cities as, "Come on, ships from the lower bay! pass up or down, white-sail'd schooners, sloops, lighters!"..."Thrive, cities- bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers, expand, being that which none else is perhaps more spiritual" (Whitman 4). While there is a ton of beauty in the way the ships glide across the water and how harmoniously sailboats sail, the port cities at the time period of 1855 were disgusting. Industrial growth around the ports led to huge amounts of people. This is only natural because people will flock to whether the jobs are, however with more people comes more problems and hygienic issues. The waters were murky due to the whaling industry and factory waste. 


             In conclusion, although Walt Whitman is correct about so much of the simple beauty of nature, he also fails to comment on the realities of life. Nature is not always as glamorous as Whitman would have it appear. From reading his article, it is understandable that so many Americans back in the day pictured these perfect little seaports and wanted to travel there only to be disappointed upon arrival. Nature shows glimmers of beauty, but also, the harsh reality is, it is also disgusting at times. I would have like Walt Whitman to pay tribute to both the beauty and the less-admirable parts of nature. 

Question: Have you ever had a gross encounter with nature when it was well, just being nature?