"I Hear America Singing" is a poem by the American poet Walt Whitman, first published in the 1860 edition of his book Leaves of Grass. Though the poem was written on the eve of the Civil War, it presents a vision of America as a harmonious community. Moving from the city to the country, and the land to the sea, the poem envisions America as a place where people do honest, meaningful, and satisfying work—and celebrate that work in song. America emerges from the work of these many and diverse individual people: their separate work comes together to form a coherent whole. In this way, in the poem's account, America is a nation where individuality and unity are balanced, each producing and reinforcing the other.
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The Full Text of “I Hear America Singing”
1I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
2Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
3The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
4The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
5The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
6The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
7The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
8The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
9Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
10The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
11Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
The Full Text of “I Hear America Singing”
1I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
2Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
3The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
4The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
5The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
6The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
7The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
8The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
9Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
10The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
11Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
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“I Hear America Singing” Summary
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“I Hear America Singing” Themes
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Work and American Identity
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I Hear America Singing”
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Lines 1-4
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, -
Lines 5-8
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, -
Lines 9-11
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.
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“I Hear America Singing” Symbols
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Singing
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Carols
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“I Hear America Singing” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Enjambment
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End-Stopped Line
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Caesura
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Consonance
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Anaphora
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Parallelism
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Chiasmus
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Metaphor
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“I Hear America Singing” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Carols
- Blithe
- Leaves off
- Steamboat
- Hatter
- Ploughboy
- Intermission
- Robust
- Melodious
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I Hear America Singing”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“I Hear America Singing” Speaker
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“I Hear America Singing” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “I Hear America Singing”
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More “I Hear America Singing” Resources
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External Resources
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"I Hear America Singing" Read Aloud — A photostory and reading of the poem.
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What Is Free Verse? — A detailed history of free verse, from the Academy of American Poets.
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1860 Version of "I Hear America Singing" — Images and text of the first printing of "I Hear America Singing" in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, where it appears as "Chants Democratic and Native American #20." Because Whitman regularly revised his work—even published poems—it is different in important ways from the version most people study today.
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Walt Whitman's Biography — A detailed biography of Whitman from the Poetry Foundation.
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Why Walt Whitman Called America the "Greatest Poem" — An article from the Atlantic Magazine about Whitman's views of American democracy.
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"The Poet" by Ralph Waldo Emerson — The complete text of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Poet"—a key inspiration for Whitman.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Walt Whitman
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