Walt Whitman

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 woodcutter’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.

1. Fill in the blanks with the given words to complete the following paragraph.

I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman, portrays a very strong, 1) America. Many citizens of the country share his views, both in the present and in 1860. Now, the war is “over there”, but in 1860, a war was about to erupt in the heart of America. Even though this powerful poem was written just a year before the 2) War officially broke out, there was bitter argument between the children of American at the time. Whitman wrote his poem to emphasize what makes the United States 3) : the simple combination of every man and woman happily dedicated to their 4) , not bickering about the rights and wrongs of “true” American 5) . Walt Whitman uses 6) of hard-working Americans and the repetition of “ 7) ” to show the North and South that the determination of the working 8) (black or white, male or female) will make the United States of America great. Walt Whitman, through his poem, was speaking to 9) Americans, in the North and the South. His audience is shown the value of the working class through extensive 10) .

2. Pair Work: Compare and contrast the poems.

The poems I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman, and I, Too Sing America by Langston Hughes (Unit 3 Text C) are two poems both written in the late 1800s/early 1900s. They both have an everlasting effect on America and inspirational values, but they vary in topics. Please discuss with your partner and identify the similarities and differences between the two poems.

Notes

1.F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940): He was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the “Lost Generation” of the 1920s. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and his most famous, The Great Gatsby.

2.Willa Cather (1873-1947): She was an American novelist noted for her novels about immigrants struggling to make a living in the Midwest during the late 1800s. She authored 12 novels, the most popular of which include My Antonia O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark , and Death Comes for the Archbishop. In her works Cather created strong female characters, who had the courage and vision to face all obstacles in their difficult lives.

3.Walt Whitman (1819-1892): He was one of the great innovators in American literature. In the cluster of poems he called Leaves of Grass he gave America its first genuine epic poem. The poetic style he devised is now called free verse — that is, poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme.

4.Langston Hughes (1902-1967): He was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then — new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that “Harlem was in vogue”.

5.Long Island: It is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City (Queens and Brooklyn), and two of which are mainly suburban (Nassau and Suffolk).

6.Croirier’s: It is apparently a fictional store, perhaps inspired by Cartier’s, a famous jewelry store established in New York by Pierre Cartier in 1917. “Croire” is a French word meaning “to believe, to think, or to credit”.

7.the Sound: Long Island Sound, a narrow finger of the Atlantic Ocean between Long Island and the state of Connecticut on the mainland, just east of New York City.

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