MY PASSION FOR FERRIES

I quite like trains. The way their wheels clack against the tracks. Their smoothed exteriors sliding by the landscape while short bursts of bells echo from their cabins. Whitman's passion for ferries in some ways dwarfs my own fondness for certain facets of public transportation. He has taken the time in his life to really know the ferries. He appreciates the aesthetic sense and inclusiveness of various images such as the "sail'd schooners" and "marvelously beautiful yachts." His words flood with good feelings and you sense that any day on a ferry is, as he puts it, "a fine day." The aspect that Whitman is a part of everything truly shows in this passage. Through the ferry he is connected to Staten island and the Hudson and the water and the boat and his old pilot friends. Public transportation pilots and drivers must have been a lot more friendly back then or perhaps Whitman is just that amicable.