An episode from 2/17/21: Tonight, I read what is probably Walt Whitman's greatest single poem, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." More focused than "Song of Myself," and concerned with much more than the mourning that consumes "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," here Whitman gives himself over to sympathy with the past and the future. He shows all of us how we can live in the present, even if we are isolated for whatever reason, and find company and sympathy in the world.

The best place to find Whitman's poetry and other writing online remains the Whitman Archive, and you can find every edition of Leaves of Grass here (as plain text downloads) and here (facsimiles of the original editions). You can find the poem in an edition of Whitman's poems that I edited, Selected Long Poems.

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Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].