I Hear America Singing: Important Quotes Explained

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear.

The opening line (line 1) is significant for the way the speaker relates an implicit claim to hear all of America singing. That is, they claim to have the capacity to hear the grand chorus of America, which is itself made up of many “varied carols.” Later in the poem, the speaker will explicitly confirm that all these varied carols are harmonious and melodic. However, the speaker already implies as much in their use of the word “carol,” which specifically designates a joyful song. Therefore, the speaker suggests that they can hear all of America singing in a harmonious concert. Whitman underscores this suggestion through a rhetorical technique called chiasmus (kee-YASS-muss). This term refers to instances where two phrases or clauses are syntactically parallel but presented in reverse order. The poem’s opening line provides a good example of chiasmus, since the speaker essentially says the same thing twice, only with an inverted syntax. This fact may be clearer if we simplify the language: “I hear [music], [music] I hear.” By saying the same thing twice, the speaker emphasizes their capacity to hear the song of America, as if they know it backward and forward.

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.

In these lines (lines 2–3), the speaker begins to enumerate several of the specific “songs” they hear America singing. Note how the speaker emphasizes a unique relationship between each person and their individual song. With this in mind, we can understand each song as a symbol for the distinctive characteristics of each individual. Just as each mechanic sings a song that is suitably “blithe and strong,” so too does the carpenter sing a song that’s appropriate to the task of “measur[ing] his plank or beam.” As the speaker proceeds to discuss masons, shoemakers, woodcutters, and others, it becomes clear how every man (and woman) “sings” a song that conveys something essential about them as an individual. Yet we may also push this interpretation further. If each person has their own distinct song to sing, then they each have their own unique contribution to make to society at large. Furthermore, if they each contribute to society in a more-or-less equal way, then they each have an equal stake in that society. To adopt the language of American democracy, we might even say they each have an equal voice. In other words, the varied “songs” named in the poem also symbolize equal social and political status.

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing.

This line (line 8) marks the end of the speaker’s list of different songs sung by different Americans. Significantly, it’s also the only line in the entire poem that references women. Whereas all the other figures mentioned in the previous seven lines are male workers, the three figures mentioned in this line are all women, whose contributions lie in the domestic sphere. The fact that the speaker includes mothers, wives, and girls in their vision of America indicates a recognition of women’s contribution to the nation as a whole. Even so, it remains clear that women’s labor is not given equal weight. For one thing, their contribution is implied to be indirect, since they support the men who, in turn, do the work that keeps America running. For another thing, the speaker only devotes one line to women, which further reflects their diminished status. America may be a place of social and political equality, as the speaker suggests throughout the poem. However, the diminished status of women’s “songs” reflects that, in reality, the concept of equality applies only to men.

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.

The speaker closes the poem with these three lines (lines 9–11), which insist on two important points. First, the speaker emphasizes that each “song” referenced in the poem so far should be understood as a symbol for what makes each person unique—that is, “what belongs to him or her and to none else.” Understood in this way, each song also represents the distinct contribution each individual makes to the larger community. The song therefore becomes a symbolic reflection of how the individual participates in collective life, where collective life is implicitly figured as the great chorus that swells as many voices sing together. The second point the speaker emphasizes relates specifically to this implicit swelling of voices. In the second and third lines of the passage quoted here, the speaker likens the great promise of America to a nighttime “party of young fellows, robust, friendly, / Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.” This description of presumably male “fellows” joining their “strong” voices together to produce “melodious” songs offers a symbolic vision of a robust and harmonious America.