I Hear America Singing. I Too, Sing America Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes
Both Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes left their mark on American poetry-but
without Whitman and his pioneering of free verse and cataloging, who knows what
kind of poetry Hughes would have created. Hughes' style was clearly inspired by
Whitman, and no poem better illustrates Whitman's influence than Hughes poem, “I
Too, Sing America". This poem is both a response to and an allusion to Whitman's
poem, "I Hear America Singing". Keep this in mind as you read and analyze the
relationship between the two poems.
PAKT ONE
Re-read "I Hear America Singing," and then read “I, Too, Sing America”. Discuss the
poems with your table groups. Choose one person to record your discussion and your
points of comparison. As you discuss, complete the chart below
Points to Compare
"I Hear America Singing "I, Too, Sing America"
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p. 925
Title
Number/Types of people
presented in poem
I
Ideas of democracy-what
makes this nation?
Diction-what do you
notice about word choice?
Focus
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