Appreciation of I Hear American Singing

Appreciation of I Hear America Singing
I Hear America Singing is a poem written by Walt Whitman, who was an American poet, essayist and journalist. He was in the period of the transition of transcendentalism and realism, and his works were incorporated with both views. Meanwhile, Whitman was the father of free verse. I Hear America Singing was published in 1860, in which Whitman depicted a concert of his fellow Americans.

This poem is in free verse form, which means there is no rhyme or a fixed rhythm. However, this poem showed Whitman's praise to democracy with impressive repetition and a wide range of characters, ranging from mechanics to shoemaker, from carpenter to mother. All of them were singing his or her own song. In this poem, the poet not only mentioned the job of different people, but also roughly introduced what they actually did about their jobs. From the depiction, we can see that all these workers, no matter what job they were undertaking, came together as a part of the whole society, pushing the whole society forward, and the country was in harmony, because everyone had their job to do.

Personally, I reckon that Whitman tried to express that all of the people of America working in their specific occupation, gathered together for the development of the whole society. They found pleasure from what they were doing and that was what they were singing. Apart from this, this poem is quite optimistic and uplifting, which is manifested in the description of the job--sewing or washing---even the simplest they still sang for it. Also, Whitman complimented these people who were hardworking enjoy their fruits and labors at