The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Crane, Hart. “To Brooklyn Bridge.” Poetry Foundation, 1930, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43262/the-bridge-to-brooklyn-bridge.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

“Brooklyn Bridge,” alternatively called “To Brooklyn Bridge,” is the first of 15 lyric poems that make up the larger epic The Bridge. Originally published in 1930, the work was considered a genre-bending “modernist epic” — a combination of epic and lyric poetry. The poem is an ode to the glory of Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and uses archaic language to juxtapose the more contemporary elements. It highlights themes of unification, social class, and spirituality with undertones that draw on Crane’s homosexuality and internalized homophobia.

The poem stretches from dawn to nightfall as the speaker watches the shifting rhythms of the city. They see the bridge as a semi-conscious transcendent threshold between worlds with the power to bring people together. At the end of the poem, the speaker implores the bridge to inspire that power in others.