Gautam Mitra

I Hear America Singing Analysis

In Walt Whitmans I Hear America Singing, the speaker of the poem

hears the different sounds and songs made by the people who are the
building blocks of America. Whitman brings to attention many of the more
unsung heroes in our society: the mechanic, carpenter, mason, boatman,
deckhand, shoemaker, hatter, woodcutter, and ploughboy. In this poem, the
people of the different professions all sing about things relating to
themselves. The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the boatman
singing what belongs to him in his boat, each person has their own carol
which they sing during their labors. This poem describes a view of America
such that America is a land where the foundation is the working class, blue
collar people. The different professions in this poem cover a large spectrum,
ranging from a mechanic to a deckhand, showing that everything matters in
order to create the so-called bigger picture. The poem is set up in two
stanzas, the first with nine lines, and the second with two. The first stanza
talks about the actual different craftsmen and what theyre singing, whereas
the short two-line stanza describes the life of celebration and partying,
indicating that the emphasis on working hard and getting a lot done is much
more significant that the short period of time spent partying. Also, the lack of
a rhyme scheme in this poem highlights the individuality of each person, that
each person in this country fulfills a different role and cant all be uniformly
aligned.