America+Singing

I really enjoyed "I hear America Singing", by Walt Whitman. It is relatively short but very entertaining. In the poem Whitman discusses how he hears varied carols of different men doing different kinds of work. This is the part where it gets interesting because if you look at all the jobs he discusses they have something in common. None of them are jobs where the worker is going to be a big famous millionaire. The jobs he states are very hardworking jobs that require tremendous amounts of effort and time, but are honestly not very noticeable jobs to mankind. Although at the same time during all of these jobs the workers make and do things that are essential to our daily lives, such as the carpenter. A carpenter can make all the cabinets in your house for example. Boatman can catch fish some of which they don’t need and give to the poor or sell to markets. All of these jobs have those things in common, they aren't great jobs that are going to earn you a ton of money, but the workers take pride in these jobs and they have significant meaning to our mainstream society. Walt Whitman is trying to say that these jobs are essential to America, and when he hears "America" singing, he hears these people.

1199745677

I agree that it is interesting in how Walt Whitman chooses the common jobs that are essential to Americas' success but I think that is only a small part of the overall poem. I think that the main idea behind "I Hear America Singing" is the different styles of each workers' song. Walt Whitman chooses to use different song styles and genres for each form of work that he thinks best describes the type of work that each worker is doing, I think Walt is trying to point out to his readers that every person has their own song for their own life style.

1199757197

I don't understand at all the point of us reading these poems from the 18 hundreds. I can see this poem as a good work of literature but Why are we reading it in this class? I don't enjoy the poetry and I don't feel i am learning anything from it. I do understand this is a good poem and people who like poetry should read it but why should i have too?1199765028 **This is a good question, AGr, and probably deserves its own topic. Could you create one? Maybe it could be called "Why Should We Read Old Poetry?" or something like that.** 1199845255

I thought this poem was a little confusing but i thought that it was an easy poem with a connection between the details of America's inner strength. What makes America the way it is? Walt Whitman describes and gives recognition to the jobs that are done that can sometimes be overlooked. We couldn't strive in the way we do and make proggressive movement if it wasn't for the hard-working people in this country. Its a team effort to keep America alive and singing, and everyone is included in this group effort. We all need to do our part and pull our weight to make this country work. We should also give the most utter respect for those in America who try their hardest.1199767396

I concur with jpu. This poem reflects the different jobs that were common at the time. Like jpu said, these jobs weren't the most popular jobs at the time, but they certainly contributed much to the society at the time. The people who had these jobs for living weren't recognized too much nor earn fair amount of money for what they do. By saying that I hear America singing, Walk Whitman was trying to say that he hears the hardships of these people. He is noticing the effort that they put in their work and describing exactly what they do to contribute to the society. **NPa**, 7 January

In this very long poem by Walt Whitman i actually found it very easy to understand because he talks about average things that many people do in their average days. His poems have no rhyming at all so it is just like if he was telling short stories in a very descriptive way which can make things seem a bit confusing. Br. Tom pointed out that many people believe that this is not true poetry but just some kind of story. At first I would think about agreeing with the rest of the crowd but if I put some sense in to the meaning of Whitman’s words I can see that just because there are no pretty butterflies it is not a poem. But it is and it is very weird because I was saying to myself why this would be important if I could do something just like it. He has a way to tell the reader of what the actions are so that in a way they can be hard to understand because he has a very weird style when he writes his poems and that is what makes him so unique. 1199921335Hre1199921335

I agree with jpu he's saying that every hard working person in our society works for a living, whether it's from being a stay home mother who works around the house or a fisherman who catches fish to sell them for food. People who work are trying to get by every day, and the one thing that's probably one of the most important things is putting food on the table everyday for workers who have families. Everybody can make a difference in this country and could even put more pride and loyalty in this country. It takes dedication and hardwork to get where people want to work for. Every single job in this country is making a difference we should have realized it by now and were playing our role or part to make our society work in peace. 1199982470

I liked this poem because it defines America as the land of the free because people can be which ever profession that they want without recieving consequences. Also in the poem the people were singing because they are happy to be living in America. In the poem the people are singing as one which makes the country powerful. I like this style of poetry because Whitman uses the same kind of structure and makes the country seem unified which is a nice positive.

1200246631

I agree that it is interesting in how Walt Whitman chooses the common jobs that are essential to Americas' success but I think that is only a small part of the poem overall. I think that the main idea behind "I Hear America Singing" is the how each Job they do is different and has a diferent song to it. Walt Whitman chooses to use different song styles and genres for each form of work that he thinks best describes the type of work that each worker is doing, I agree with some of you that Walt Whitman is trying to point out to his readers that every person has their own song for their own life style. 1200322492

I also agree that it is interesting that Whitman chose the common jobs that ar impoortant to America ind it's success. I think that the poem is also saying that no matter where your working or what you do there is always a song that goes with that line of work, and that we all have songs. even though we all have work songs we all have different songs and stuff. I agree with some of you that Whitman is trying to point out to his readers that every person has their own song for their own life style. 1200323791

I think the poem " I hear Ameraca singing" is confusing but insightful. Walt Whitman speaks as though he is talking about his own life. Yet he has his own reality of his words. He hears America singing. He notices the love and hate in this world. When we walk outside we are in the presense of Americas song. He says he hears the boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck-hand singing on the steamboat deck. Whitman hears and sees all the people in this world and how they live and effect others. He explains the singing of the mothers and the young woman at work or of the girls sewing and washing. I really am inspired by this poem. I see where he is comeing from. I think about how great and how far our world has come on a daily basis. **SSA**

I thought this poem was a little confusing but i thought that it was an easy poem with a connection between the details of America's inner strength. Walt Whitman describes and gives recognition to the jobs that are done that can sometimes be overlooked. This poem shows the common man is very important to the success and if it was not for the comon man the wealthy people would not be able to live like they do because who would do their dirty workWe couldn't strive in the way we do and make proggressive movement if it wasn't for the hard-working people in this country. Its a team effort to keep America alive and singing, and everyone is included in this group effort. We all need to do our part and pull our weight to make this country work. We should also give the most utter respect for those in America who try their hardest.1200327190

I also thougth that this poem was a bit confusing because it did not have an explanaition at all but it was a lot easier to read than any other poems that we have had in class. He is a writter that notices the things that we see in a daily basis but never pay much attention to. he makes the people open their eyes to see things that are not common but that are always present. He can show in this poem the importance of one mans job to himself and the whole society. This poem is important to me because it is showing me that anything i do for someone else can change the way people look at you. and i think that maybe we should have more things writtenn about the underdogs the ones that are always there but have such a little chance of being recognized. Because all the people should get an award for doing something with hard work and concentration because it takes a lot to accomplish any little thing. And i think that in the future we should give the ones that are lower more recognition and more appretiation because sometimes their hard work makes our jobs easier. hre1200360586

I thought this was a rather interesting poem and provided a lot of information as to how careers have a solid yet positive place in America. Whitman pretty much points out how a career and/or occupation is basically your life foundation. A job can determine your wealth and success that you'll have. He also makes it clear, that as a person, it takes hard work to be successful. And, as everyone says, "hard work pays off". To make it in this country you have to have some sort of profession to obtain. How else will you survive? I think Whitman showed a lot of people with this poem, how a job can help you in many ways in life and that a career overall is what makes someone in America. Whitman also points out the significance of one's job to themselves, and no matter how good the job is or not, it still has some sort of value to the employee. This poem showed me how our country has traveled a slow yet flourishing progress in terms of American's and their jobs. We've come a long way and Whitman's respect for it was shown through this poem. 1201356125