"To Brooklyn Bridge" is the opening poem in Hart Crane's The Bridge (1930), a book-length poetic sequence about American history and modern life. A "Proem" or preface to the longer work, it introduces the subject that ties the sequence together: New York City's Brooklyn Bridge. In ecstatic and worshipful language, Crane presents the bridge as a transcendent work of art, a quintessential symbol of modern America, and a gathering place for everyone from lovers to troubled outcasts. Ultimately, Crane imagines the bridge, and the vision of "freedom" it represents, unifying all of America—from the "prairies[]" to the "sea."

• 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