There's no doubt about it: Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was the father of American poetry. The awesomeness of his poetry is rivaled only by his beard. (Don't believe us? Check that baby out here.)
Think we're exaggerating? We're really not. Whitman, whose life and career spanned the nineteenth century, helped to define what it means to be an American. The dude loved his country. He loved the bustle of the cities and the expansiveness of the wilderness. He loved Abraham Lincoln and the fallen soldiers of the Civil War. He loved technology and industry and he lved the American promise of freedom. But most of all, Whitman loved the regular Joes of America, the guys and gals with regular jobs, living out their regular American dreams. Walt Whitman was as impressed by the life of an American shoemaker as he was of the life of Abraham Lincoln. The poet had some serious American pride, and he directed it toward everyone.
Published in Whitman's 1860 edition of his epic collection Leaves of Grass, "I Hear America Singing" is all about this American pride. And it's specifically about pride in work. (What could be more American than a hard day's work, after all?) In the poem, Whitman describes the voices of working Americans toiling away at their jobs; he details the carpenter and boatman, the hatter and the mason, the mother and the seamstress alike. And by imagining that they are all singing, he celebrates them and their hard work, and also creates a vision of an America unified by song and hard work.
Sure, working as a mason isn't glamorous, but cheer up, mason. Walt Whitman hears your voice! He loves your voice! And gosh darn it, he's gonna celebrate your voice in his poetry. For Whitman, the average Joe stone mason is just as important as the president of the U.S. of A. Now that's a vision of democracy we can get behind.
