The Bridge Literary Elements

The poem is written from a third-person subjective point of view.

The poem is written in iambic pentameter.

The most important metaphor in the poem is the main subject of the poem, the Brooklyn Bridge. The author writes about the bridge because he is awed by mankind’s power to create something so great but also because it is a metaphor for the American society in general. Just like the Brooklyn Bridge managed to connect various parts of the city, the American society connected various parts of humanity into one place and makes it coexist.

We find alliteration in the first line, "rippling rest."

The poems where the author talks about women are perceived as being ironic because while initially he lets is understood that he wants to praise women, the opposite happens.

Eulogy

The action takes place on the Brooklyn Bridge.

The author uses a reverent tone when talking about the bridge, almost as if he is worshiping it.

The protagonist is the Bridge but there is no antagonist.

The major conflict is between the past and modernity.

The poem reaches its climax in the poem Atlantis when the author returns home and sees the Bridge from a different perspective.

There is no foreshadowing in the poem.

No understatement can be found in the poem.

When the poet mentions Christopher Columbus he alludes that the Bridge linked two separate areas just as Columbus connected the old world with the new one through his voyages.

The term "seagull" is used in the poems in a general sense to make reference to the people crossing over the bridge and using it on a regular basis.

In the first part of the poem, "Thy cables breathe the North Atlantic still."

We find a hyperbole in the first poem in which the author talks about the Brooklyn Bridge ‘’Again the traffic lights that skim thy swift /Unfractioned idiom, immaculate sigh of stars, /Beading thy path—condense eternity:’’.

We find onomatopoeia in the line "sharply up the long anvil cry."