The narrator is on a ferry, as he looks out on the water and the other passengers he thinks of the people that will take this same journey in the future. He sees himself as being connected with these future people. He tells them about himself, that he is evil but is still just a normal guy. He tells them that everything should continue as it is, nature and man. He thinks that man can learn about his soul and spiritual things by observing the physical or nature.
In this poem Whitman is stating how time is connected by nature for, for the most part, nature does not change. Men in the future will be crossing that same body of water as the narrator did. Nature can connect the people from the past and future. They all experience nature and can learn from it. The spiritual and their soul can all be understood better through experiencing nature. This connects with his transcendentalism thought that man has fallen from its perfect state with nature, but to learn about themselves, they should look to nature. Nature can show what man should be like and the good things in man can relate back to nature. Whitman wants to experience nature so that he can learn more about his soul.
Does Whitman make up these stories or are these things that have happened to him?
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