I Hear America Singing: Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Songs

Throughout the poem, the speaker references a range of individuals and the distinct “songs” they sing. The speaker establishes the importance of songs in the opening lines (lines 1–3):

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 speaker makes similar references to other individuals, “each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else” (line 9). 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 a particular person’s distinct contributes to the larger community. Just as the carpenter sings a song that’s appropriate to the task of “measur[ing] his plank or beam” (line 3), so too does every man and woman “sing” their own unique contribution. We can also push this interpretation further in order to understand songs more generally as a symbol for social and political equality. If each person has their own song to sing, then they each have a distinct contribution to make to society at large. And 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 say they each have an equal voice.

America

It may not initially seem like America should be understood symbolically in Whitman’s poem. After all, the speaker seems primarily invested in the symbolic significance of labor, which collectively establishes the foundations on which a nation can be built. Seen in this way, the nation is merely the result of such symbolic action, and not a symbol in and of itself. However, if we flip this logic on its head, we could interpret the poem as advancing an image of America in which the nation symbolizes the ideal of a successful liberal democracy. Whereas much of the world in the nineteenth century remained under the influence of monarchy, America saw itself as a shining example of democracy. For democracy to work, a balance needs to be struck between individual liberty and collective responsibility. That is, people need to feel secure in their freedom, but also retain a sense of duty to the nation. Whitman envisions America as a place that has struck just such a balance. There, individuals ply their unique trades, but they do so in a collective spirit that uplifts the nation as a whole. In this regard, America symbolizes the most ideal version of democracy.

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