Walt Whitman's I Hear America Singing

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“I Hear America Singing” was first published in 1867 as part of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which was a collection of several interconnecting poems. It was published just a few years after the Civil War in America ended in 1865, during the Reconstruction period. Throughout the poem, Whitman praises the typical American worker, and shows his deep respect and admiration for America. The speaker in “I Hear America Singing” shows a very strong resemblance to Whitman himself. Within the poem, there is a tone that is very patriotic and shows an admiration towards everyday American workers, as revealed in the first line of the poem, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,” (Whitman 1). Whitman was a transcendentalist, so he wrote in many of his poems about the natural goodness of human beings. This style of writing is apparent when he describes the workers in the poem with words such as “blithe”, “strong”, “robust”, and “friendly”, depicting them as cheerful and caring people. Next, the theme of singing and music is compared to the actions of the workers in the poem. This metaphor appears throughout the…show more content…
The first section, which contains the first nine lines of the poem, focuses on the individual freedom and attitudes of typical working-class Americans. Line 9 depicts the theme of individualism very well: “Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else” (Whitman 9). Whitman lists the work done by many different daytime laborers, such as a carpenter, a mason, a shoemaker, and a mother to show the different types of work done by different individuals. He makes a strong effort to show that even though everyone might have a different job, there are similarities between every person. Each different occupation is content with their occupation. In lines 3-6 of the first section, Whitman creates a sense of rhythm by using repetition at the beginning of each
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