Podcast Summary: The Memory Palace

Episode: Summer Reading: Two Transcendent Poems About Public Transportation

Host: Nate DiMeo

Date: August 21, 2025

Overview

In this special summer episode, Nate DiMeo shares readings of two classic American poems whose transcendent insights are rooted in everyday, yet profound, experiences on public transportation. Through Walt Whitman’s Crossing Brooklyn Ferry and Elizabeth Bishop’s The Moose, DiMeo invites listeners to reflect on the subtle connections and shared transcendence found in seemingly ordinary journeys. The selections explore how the public spaces of ferries and buses become sites for memory, empathy, awe, and human communion across generations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction—Purpose of the Episode

• Nate DiMeo introduces his annual tradition of closing out the summer with American literary readings, this time focusing on two poems that elevate public transportation to the realm of the sublime.
  • “At the end of the summer… I like to leave you with something to listen to. And I read something from American literature. And today I have two poems—each transcendent stories of a particular kind of American transcendence that both take place on public transportation.” (00:00)

2. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman

• Subject: Whitman meditates on his travels across the East River by ferry, connecting with people across time and space through shared sensory experiences, emotions, and existential questions.
• Themes:
  • Transcendence of Time & Connection Across Generations:
    • Whitman addresses future ferry passengers, suggesting a timeless bond.
    • “And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me and more in my meditations than you might suppose.” (00:40)
  • Hyper-Attunement to the Physical and Urban World:
    • Detailed observations of the city, river, boats, buildings, and people, illustrating how deeply lived experiences link individuals.
    • “Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow... Saw the white sails of schooners in sloops.” (03:40)
  • Human Imperfection & Shared Fallibility:
    • Whitman acknowledges his own imperfections, creating a sense of kinship and honest fellowship with readers and fellow travelers.
    • “I am he who knew what it was to be evil. I too knitted the old knot of contrariety, blabbed, blushed, resented, lied, stole, grudged, had guile, anger, lust...” (06:40)
  • Spiritual Uplift and Mutual Recognition:
    • The poem emphasizes the profoundly spiritual quality found in urban, communal experiences; the ferry becomes a metaphor for transcendence and mutual understanding.
    • “We understand then, do we not, what I promised without mentioning it? Have you not accepted what this study could not teach?” (10:00)
  • Lasting Impact of Place and Encounter:
    • Whitman posits that urban environments and everyday crossings become a spiritual legacy, providing "parts toward the soul."
    • “You necessary film. Continue to envelop the soul about my body for me and your body for you… We plant you permanently within us. We fathom you not, we love you. There is perfection in you also.” (12:45)

3. The Moose by Elizabeth Bishop

• Subject: Bishop narrates a bus journey through Nova Scotia, capturing the ordinary routines of rural life and culminating in a surprising, mystical encounter with a moose.
• Themes:
  • Detailed, Loving Observation of the World:
    • Bishop traces the journey across “fish and bread and tea,” farmhouses, and tidal marshes, setting a vivid, communal rural scene.
    • “From narrow provinces of fish and bread and tea, home of the long tides, where the bay leaves the sea twice a day and takes the herrings long rides…” (14:00)
  • Communal Solitude and Nighttime Reverie:
    • As night falls, the bus ride becomes a zone of dreamy half-sleep, old stories, and familial voices blending into the present.
    • “A gentle auditory slow hallucination. And the creakings and noises and old conversation not concerning us but recognizable somewhere... Grandparents, voices uninterruptedly talking in eternity.” (17:15)
  • The Moose Encounter—A Moment of the Sublime:
    • The bus halts for a moose, shocking the nocturnal reverie with a sudden, almost sacred presence.
    • “Suddenly the bus driver stops with a jolt, turns off his lights. A moose has come out of the impenetrable wood and stands there, looms rather in the middle of the road. It approaches, it sniffs the bus’s hot hood, towering antlers high as a church, homely as a house or safe as houses…” (19:55)
    • The encounter prompts awe and joy, uniting the bus’s passengers in “sweet sensation.”
    • “Why do we feel, we all feel this sweet sensation of joy? Curious creatures, says our quiet driver, rolling his Rs. Look at that, would you?” (21:00)
  • Returning to Ordinary Life, Changed:
    • The journey resumes, haunted and blessed by the mysterious visit—a metaphor for how moments of transcendence interrupt and renew the everyday.
    • “Then there’s a dim smell of moose, an acrid smell of gasoline.” (22:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Whitman’s Community Across Generations:
  • “Distance avails not, and place avails not. I too, lived. Brooklyn, of ample hills, was mine.” (06:00)
• Bishop’s Evocation of Rural Routine:
  • “Through late afternoon, a bus journeys west, the windshield flashing pink, pink glancing off, metal brushing the dented flank of blue beat up enamel down hollows up, rises and waits patient while a lone traveler gives kisses and embraces to seven relatives…” (15:00)
• The Sublime Confrontation with the Moose:
  • “A moose has come out of the impenetrable wood and stands there, looms rather in the middle of the road. It approaches, it sniffs the bus’s hot hood, towering antlers high as a church, homely as a house or safe as houses…” (19:55)
  • “Why do we feel, we all feel this sweet sensation of joy?” (21:00)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Introduction & Premise (00:00–00:56)
• Reading: Walt Whitman’s "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (00:56–13:25)
  • Generational connection and time (00:40–02:00)
  • Urban imagery and ferry life (03:00–06:00)
  • Human frailty and kinship (06:40–08:40)
  • Spiritual summation (10:00–13:25)
• Reading: Elizabeth Bishop’s "The Moose" (13:30–22:20)
  • Scene-setting and journey (14:00–17:00)
  • Dream-like bus interior, ancestral voices (17:15–19:45)
  • Moose encounter and passenger wonder (19:55–21:00)
  • Ending and reflection (21:00–22:20)

Tone and Style

The episode is contemplative and immersive, laced with DiMeo’s gentle narration and the evocative, image-rich language of the poems. The tone is reverent toward the everyday, inviting listeners to find wonder, connection, and even spirituality in overlooked communal spaces.

Conclusion

This episode of The Memory Palace offers listeners a meditative literary journey through the veins of ordinary America—ferries and buses—revealing how, with attentive eyes and open hearts, these public spaces can yield extraordinary, even transcendent, experiences. Walt Whitman and Elizabeth Bishop remind us that we are all, across time and place, fellow travelers, bound by the rituals and mysteries of passage.