“I Hear America Singing,” by Walt Whitman is mainly about American people working away at their jobs in a joyful manner. I will be paraphrasing this poem, stating the theme, and giving my personal reaction to it.
To summarize Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” people work joyfully and sing the songs of their jobs throughout the day. The speaker of the poem announces that he hears "America singing," and then describes that each worker sings, "what belongs to him or her,” such as the mechanics whose songs are “blithe and strong”, the carpenters as they “measure their plank or beam”, the masons as they “make ready for work”, the boatmen singing about “what belongs to them in their boat”, the deckhands “singing on the steamboat decks”, …show more content…
Working is a common factor of modern life. For most of us, work is something we do to pay the bills, but Whitman saw work as a very way of life. The tone of “I Hear America Singing” is a joyful, positive tone. Whitman is celebrating the everyday life of an average American as he or she goes about his or her daily business and responsibilities. The author is showing that the happiness the people of America portray is because of the simple fact that they’re actually able to wake up and work, unlike many other people throughout the world. Even though the jobs that the author lists are laborious, the people are content and “singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.” Whitman is very craftful by choosing the poetic devices such as alliteration, personification, and hyperboles. An example of alliteration is when Whitman repeats the consonant ‘s’ in the line “The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands.” The author uses personification in the first line of the poem when he says “I Hear America Singing,” and when he states “The day what belongs to the day.” A hyperbole is used in the line, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,” to exaggerate the fact that the sound of joyful Americans working is something
To summarize Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” people work joyfully and sing the songs of their jobs throughout the day. The speaker of the poem announces that he hears "America singing," and then describes that each worker sings, "what belongs to him or her,” such as the mechanics whose songs are “blithe and strong”, the carpenters as they “measure their plank or beam”, the masons as they “make ready for work”, the boatmen singing about “what belongs to them in their boat”, the deckhands “singing on the steamboat decks”, …show more content…
Working is a common factor of modern life. For most of us, work is something we do to pay the bills, but Whitman saw work as a very way of life. The tone of “I Hear America Singing” is a joyful, positive tone. Whitman is celebrating the everyday life of an average American as he or she goes about his or her daily business and responsibilities. The author is showing that the happiness the people of America portray is because of the simple fact that they’re actually able to wake up and work, unlike many other people throughout the world. Even though the jobs that the author lists are laborious, the people are content and “singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.” Whitman is very craftful by choosing the poetic devices such as alliteration, personification, and hyperboles. An example of alliteration is when Whitman repeats the consonant ‘s’ in the line “The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands.” The author uses personification in the first line of the poem when he says “I Hear America Singing,” and when he states “The day what belongs to the day.” A hyperbole is used in the line, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,” to exaggerate the fact that the sound of joyful Americans working is something