"Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos/Disorderly, fleshy and sensual eating and drinking/and breeding/No sentimentalist no stander above men and women or/apart from them no more modest than immodest." This is how Walt Whitman revealed himself in his first edition of Leaves of Grass. The book's cover had no author or title and instead, on the front, an image of a man in working clothes serves to identify the author. He is regarded as one of the greatest American poets of the nineteenth century to many. Being regarded so highly would make one think that Whitman was a rich, prosperous, and a high maintenance individual like most celebrities we think of today such as the Kardashian's and Kanye West's of the world of today, but Whitman was an ordinary man who had a tremendous gift of writing. Fascinated with ordinary American people, Whitman demonstrates in his poem "I Hear America Singing" an example of his beliefs of human life and his love for America. Americans believe that as a nation it is built on hard work and Whitman demonstrates it in is poem by putting them in the spotlight.
"I Hear America Singing" is an elaborate way of writing a joyful list of people working away. He hears "America" or the American people singing and describes them throughout the poem. He introduces various American working people from mechanics to mothers, and each American sings what belongs to them, for example in line three of the poem, "The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam." All of these Americans singing their carols sing them loud and proud. They are all proud of what is his or hers and I think Whitman feels close to that sense of being an American. At the end of the poem Whitman concludes the poem with "young fellows" singing their songs that are not from the day because "The day belongs to the day" (line 10).
