I Hear America Singing

By Walt Whitman

“I Hear America Singing” is Walt Whitman’s poem about American workers, from carpenters and masons to mothers and shoemakers, each singing a song of their own as they work. The 11-line free-verse poem first appeared in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass and reached its final form in 1881.

Our reading is that the song Whitman hears is democracy itself. No singer is ranked above another, no two songs are the same, and yet together they make one chorus. It is an idealized America, a vision rather than a report, and it has served ever since as a picture of what the country could be.

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Summary · The Poem · Background · Analysis and Themes · Form and Technique · Notable Lines · Themes · FAQ
Glossary · In Popular Culture · Related Poems

Summary

The speaker listens to America and hears it singing. He picks out the singers one by one: mechanics, a carpenter measuring a plank, a mason starting or finishing work, a boatman and a deckhand, a shoemaker, a hatter, a wood-cutter, and a plowboy. He hears the women too: a mother, a young wife, and a girl sewing or washing.

Each person sings what belongs to them alone. By day, the songs belong to work, and at night a group of young men sing together with open mouths, strong and friendly. The poem ends on that sound.

The Poem

The text below follows the final edition of Leaves of Grass (David McKay, Philadelphia, 1891–92), the last Whitman approved.

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Background

Whitman first published Leaves of Grass himself in 1855 and spent the rest of his life expanding and revising it. This poem first appeared in the much larger third edition, published in Boston by Thayer and Eldridge in 1860, as number 20 in a group called “Chants Democratic.” That version opened with the exclamation “American mouth-songs!” and ended with an extra stanza.

In later editions, Whitman cut the opening exclamation and the final stanza and gave the poem a new first line, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,” which became its title. In the 1881 edition, he moved it into “Inscriptions,” the short poems that open Leaves of Grass, where it has stayed. The poem was first printed on the eve of the Civil War, which gives its picture of a harmonious nation an added hope, or an added irony.

Analysis and Themes

The poem is a single long sentence, a list of singers that builds into a chorus. Three ideas give it its force: the equality of the people it names, the individuality of their songs, and the idea that work itself is a kind of music.

A Nation Heard, Not Seen

Whitman does not describe America’s landscapes or leaders. He listens to its people. The first line sets the method: “I hear America singing,” as if the country were a sound and the poet its audience. The “varied carols” are the many voices of a democracy, and the poem’s job is to let each one be heard.

Every Singer Equal

The list has no hierarchy. Mechanics come first, and the carpenter, mason, boatman, shoemaker, and hatter follow with the same sentence pattern and the same respect. When the women arrive, they are singing too, at work as surely as the men. Every job gets a line, and none is ranked above another, which was a radical way to picture a nation in 1860.

Songs That Belong to Each

The key line is the ninth: “Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else.” Whitman’s democracy is not a crowd singing in unison. It is a chorus of solos, where every person keeps a separate identity. The ending widens the frame from day to night, from work to friendship, as the young men sing together “with open mouths,” and the individual songs finally join.

An Ideal, Not a Report

The America in the poem is idealized. There are no strikes, no poverty, no enslaved people, and every worker is content. Some critics have called the poem sentimental for that reason. It is better read as a vision of what the country could be than as a portrait of what it was, and that is how later poets used it.

Form and Technique

The poem has 11 lines of free verse, with no rhyme and no regular meter. Whitman builds it as a catalog, one of his signature techniques: a list of people, each given a line or half a line. The lines are long, and several run past the margin, as if the list could keep going.

Repetition holds it together. The word “singing” appears again and again, and phrases such as “singing his as” and “singing what belongs to” repeat with small changes, a device called anaphora when it opens successive lines. The effect is musical, like a refrain, and it makes the poem sound like what it describes.

Notable Lines

These lines carry the poem’s idea of a democratic chorus.

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Line 1

The first line names the whole nation as a sound, and “varied” announces that the songs will all be different.

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

Line 9

The heart of the poem. Every song is personal property, and no one sings someone else’s tune.

The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Lines 10 to 11

The poem turns from work to rest and from single voices to a group, ending in open, shared song.

Themes

Four ideas run through the poem.

Democracy. The nation is made of equal individuals, and its voice is the sum of theirs.

The dignity of work. Every job, from carpentry to washing, is worth a song, and the workers sing because they take pride in what they do.

Individuality. Each person sings what belongs to them “and to none else.” Unity does not require sameness.

American identity. Whitman defines America through its ordinary people rather than its history, leaders, or land.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions readers most often ask about “I Hear America Singing”.

What is “I Hear America Singing” about?

It is about ordinary American working people, each singing while they work. Whitman lists carpenters, masons, boatmen, shoemakers, mothers, and young laborers, and the combined sound of their separate songs becomes a picture of America itself.

When was “I Hear America Singing” written?

Whitman first published it in 1860, in the third edition of Leaves of Grass, as number 20 in a group called “Chants Democratic.” He revised it over the next two decades, and the familiar version, with its title taken from the first line, reached its final form in the 1881 edition.

What is the theme of “I Hear America Singing”?

The main theme is democracy: a nation made of many individuals, each with a separate identity, who together form a single whole. The poem also celebrates the dignity of work and treats every job, from shoemaking to washing, as equally worth singing about.

What does singing represent in “I Hear America Singing”?

Singing stands for the pride and satisfaction people take in their own work and lives. Each song is individual, “what belongs to him or her and to none else,” and together the songs become the voice of the country.

What type of poem is “I Hear America Singing”?

It is a short lyric in free verse, written as a catalog, or list. It has no rhyme or regular meter and relies on repetition and long, flowing lines, the style Whitman made famous in Leaves of Grass.

Glossary

A few words have older or trade meanings.

• carols (line 1): Joyful songs. Whitman uses the word for any glad singing, not only Christmas songs.
• mechanics (line 2): Skilled manual workers and tradespeople, not only people who repair machines.
• blithe (line 2): Cheerful and carefree.
• mason (line 4): A builder who works in stone or brick.
• hatter (line 6): A person who makes or sells hats.
• ploughboy (line 7): A boy who guides the horses pulling a plow.
• noon intermission (line 7): The midday break from work.
• party (line 10): A group of people, not a celebration.

In Popular Culture

The poem’s picture of America has been answered, danced, and borrowed.

Langston Hughes replied to it in “I, Too” (1926), which opens “I, too, sing America” and speaks for the Black Americans left out of Whitman’s chorus. The two poems are now often taught side by side.

The dancer Isadora Duncan, who called herself Whitman’s spiritual daughter, said the poem inspired her to imagine an American dance, and she wrote about it in her essay “I See America Dancing.”

Related Poems

If this poem speaks to you, these make good companions.

• I, Too by Langston Hughes: A direct reply to Whitman that claims a place in America’s song for Black Americans.
• Song of Myself by Walt Whitman: The long poem where Whitman’s catalogs and democratic “I” first took shape.
• Chicago by Carl Sandburg: A Whitman-inspired portrait of an American city through its workers.
• O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman: Whitman’s best-known poem, an elegy for Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War.