Poetry- Walt Whitman `I Hear America Singing` Lesson 7

Whether sitting down or standing up they were at their most comfortable that singing came naturally easy for them . In the woods and in the farms , the song came from the cutter and the farmer as they labored from sunlight to sundown . Their task can be back-breaking but by singing they lightened their burden and provided themselves respite especially at midday . The women who did the cooking , sewing and washing also sang to cast away their boredom and in its place welcomed the gladness in doing their domestic chores for their love ones

p Walt Whitman spoke of lightness of feelings , despite the demands of work . He used contrasts in the poem . He associated work with heavy and song with light . He made an attempt and succeeded in uniting or putting the contrasts together by making the worker sing . The worker sang not to an audience but he sang for himself . Singing did many things to the workers : sustained the jolly mood of the mechanic , lightened the load of the carpenter , opened the exciting day of the mason , puts novelty in the boatman 's job , let the thrill in to the deckhand , fed creativity in the routine for the shoemaker and the hatter , provided a restful break for the woodcutter and the farmer , and took the boredom away and inspired the women in their home chores

Walt Whitman used free verse in I Hear America Singing as well as imagery of men with different occupations giving in to the urge and lightness of feeling to want to burst into a song . With free verse he was able to compose a picture of uncontained happiness of a man in doing his job . Free verse was suggestive that work was not a bondage to the man but the source of his joy . Whitman...