solved I need an explanation for this Blog Post question to

I need an explanation for this Blog Post question to help me study.

Walt Whitman and Leaves of Green
Walt Whitman was born not too far from Stony Brook in Huntington, New York (although he would later move to Brooklyn). He is considered by many to be one of the greatest American poets in history, and it’s nice to know that someone so influential came from our own little island.
This reputation mainly comes from his iconic collection of poetry Leaves of Green. Whitman worked on the book for the majority of his life, editing it over and over and over between the first edition in 1855 and his death in 1892.
No one is even sure how many editions there really are, depending on who you ask it could be six different versions or as many as nine. These were not just small changes either, the original book contained only a dozen or so poems while the final edition contained hundreds.
Fun Fact: The book is also featured in a pivotal scene in my favorite TV show of all time Breaking Bad)
And as poetry goes, Whitman wrote some of the most interesting poems ever in this book. Many of them do not really follow a pattern or a traditional rhyming scheme. Instead, Whitman just used whatever style he felt like for each particular poem. This became known as free verse poetry, a style Whitman is credited with pioneering.
An example of this can be seen in Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, where Whitman’s third stanza is over 400 words and the following stanza is only 62. So every stanza basically is just formed around what Whitman thinks sounds the best, not some rigid ABCCB rhyming scheme like I learned in middle school.
Finding Meaning in the Little Things
Throughout the first four stanzas of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Whitman spends much of the poem explaining the little minutiae of life that he notices on his ferry ride. This includes the waves, the tide, other boats passing by as well as all the people around him.
He takes his time to acknowledge the things that we usually don’t think about while we’re wrapped up in our own worries of day-to-day life.
The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the frolicsome crests and glistening,
The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the granite storehouses by the docks
Now, this poem is not meant to be some grand exploration of what life means. There are certainly existential themes explored, but Whitman’s main goal is to create a detailed account of our shared experiences as humans to get a better idea of who we really are.

He thinks about all of the people who have come before him and all those who will come after him. He knows life has an expiration date, and as he takes this ferry across the East River he thinks about all the people who have experienced the same things in life that he has.
Everyone who has ridden that ferry and who will ever ride that ferry will see the waves in the water, hear the seagulls chirping in the air, and watch other boats pass by. By focusing on these details, he is showing that as different as we may sometimes feel our lives can be from one another we all have many shared experiences.
As he rode that ferry and acknowledged all of these shared experiences, he felt closer to the people around him “The men and women I saw were all near to me” Whitman states, “Others the same—others who look back on me because I look’d forward to them, (The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.)”
He feels close to the people riding next to him as well as the people who will ride one day, thinking back to past ferry riders such as himself.
Maybe if we just followed Whitman’s example and took the time to slow down and acknowledge these little moments in life that we all share, we could stop all the fighting and appreciate the things we have in common.
(But then I check Twitter and realize it’s probably a lost cause)
Discussion Questions

What piece of descriptive imagery by Whitman interested you the most? How did he make something that usually goes unnoticed seem fascinating?
What relationship does Whitman feel he has with the past, present and future riders of the ferry?
Try to think of something boring you did today and analyze it like Whitman does to his ferry trip. Can you find the same kinds of shared experiences?