33 pages • 1 hour read
Walt WhitmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman (1860)
“I Hear America Singing” is one of Whitman’s most widely known poems. As with “I Sing the Body Electric,” this poem celebrates everyday, working-class Americans, glorifying work and nation-building. It includes references to the value of women and a variety of different kinds of laborers, but it does not reference enslaved people or slavery. It relies on repetition and makes use of the word “sing” to signify celebration and harmony of a collective.
“O Pioneers! O Pioneers!” by Walt Whitman (1865)
In this poem, Whitman celebrates the pioneers, moving westward to settle the land on behalf of the European-descended, new Americans. The pioneers would have faced hardships and danger and would have been required to endure physical deprivation and long hours of manual labor to create new houses, towns, cities, etc. This poem glorifies bravery, self-sufficiency, and the ethics around work. As with Section 5 of “I Sing the Body Electric,” in which Whitman describes an idealized farmer, this poem demonstrates an idealized version of pioneers settling the West through their determination, hard work, and bravery.
“O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman (1865)
By Walt Whitman
A Glimpse
Walt Whitman
America
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Walt Whitman
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Walt Whitman
For You O Democracy
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Song of Myself
Walt Whitman
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Walt Whitman
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Walt Whitman