Preview

Comparing I Hear America Singing And Let America Be America Again

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
547 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparing I Hear America Singing And Let America Be America Again
March 1st, 2013

Comparing and Contrasting Poems
Walt Whitman's "I hear America Singing" and Langston Hughes's "Let America be America Again" are both similar and different in many ways. The two poems have similar themes, but different styles. The purposes are not alike in any way, they are both trying to portray different issues and topics.
Whitman's poem is very cheerful. I get this impression by the statement "singing with open mouths their song of melodious songs". To me, he is expressing the happiness of each worker and is showing the audience that the workers are in good spirits. I also believe his poem is very playful. He makes it clear that the poem is meant to give off good vibes and is showing the workers being content with themselves as well as with their placement in America. Another impression I get by Whitman's poem is that it is meant to be joyous. the reason I believe this is because he continue sly points out that each worker is "singing" and usually singing is a way of showing joy. I also believe Whitman is being intimate with his words and with the way he portrays each worker. The statement "Each singing …show more content…
Hughes is very earnest in his poem. I feel this way because he is very serious throughout the entire poem and is showing his deep feelings of his opinions on America. I have also gotten the impression that Hughes is very optimistic in his poem. He says "I am the young man, full of strength and hope…" this is a direct statement saying he believes in positive outcomes and is hopeful. Another feeling I have while reading this poem is he is very serious. He is making it clear that his intention is not to be funny and that he wants his poem to be taken sincerly. I also believe that Hughes is being very nostalgic. He is missing what America once was and is yearning for the past. I believe this due to the fact that he uses the statement " Let America be America agin, let it be the dream it use to
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Compare And Contrast I Hear America Singing And Angela De Hoyos
    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare And Contrast I Hear America Singing And Angela De Hoyos

    “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman, “To Walt Whitman” by Angela De Hoyos, and “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes. Walt Whitman was an American poet born on May 31st, 1819. Whitman is mostly known for using free verse during the Transcendentalism era. Angela De Hoyos is a Mexican poet born in January 23, 1940. She is mostly known as a chicana poet. Langston Hughes was an African American poet who was born in February 1st, 1902 and is known for talking about black culture, literature, and emotions in his poems. Whitman, De Hoyos, and Hughes all share similarities and difference in how people work around the work.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    I Hear America Singing Comparison
    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I Hear America Singing Comparison

    America is known for its freedom and pride but, America does have some flaws. The authors of both I Hear America Singing and I Too describe America in the past during their time. They both describe how they feel while living in America. In the poem I Hear America Singing, the theme is about pride in America and everyone working and coming together. Walt Whitman feels that America is growing and getting better as a country with everyone working and enjoying what they do. America is filled with joy and pride, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong” (1-3). All of the workers are strong and gleeful. Everyone is in harmony while working together. America symbolizes…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A comparison of "Child of the Americas" and "Amer
    • 710 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A comparison of "Child of the Americas" and "Amer

    "Child of the Americas", a poem by Aurora Levins Morales describes the perspective of a Puerto Rican woman that has a very diverse ancestral background who has immigrated to the United States. "Amerícan", on the other hand, is a more so broader depiction of a very similiar concept to that of "Child of the Americas". The poems seem to have many distinct similarities, including their common overall theme of the narrators love for who they are and where they live.…

    • 710 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    log 1
    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages

    log 1

    In the short poem “I, Too Sing America”, Hughes begins by claiming that he, too, "sings America". He goes on to say in stanza two that he is "the darker brother" referring to his skin color and the US brotherhood. The speaker imagines a future in which he is no longer sent to the kitchen, in which no one would dare to call him unequal. When talking about this, he has a lot of attitude. The poem concludes with the speaker reiterating that he (and, therefore, his race) is indeed American.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Roethke Night Journey
    • 164 Words
    • 1 Page

    Roethke Night Journey

    So you asked us to determine the degree of how American we think the poem is. Well this one I'm going to have to go and give it a first degree. The first thing that I would say I noticed was that they were talking about being on a train and going out west. In a history class a while back I remember talking about a set of train tracks that ran all the way across America. He was talking about looking out the window and seeing trees and mountains and all I could think about is the train coasting through the Appellations. And lastly the last line of the poem is very important. "to see the land I love". When I read this all I can imagine is a proud American just looking out his window and seeing the land he loves.…

    • 164 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare and Contrast
    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare and Contrast

    In Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” and Claude McKay’s “America” the poets present a similar view of America, but they do so in a very different manor. While both show a love for America and focus on life in America, that is where their similarities end. Whitman’s view of America is up-beat and positive, focusing on the life of everyday people in America. McKay’s view of America is much more negative, and reveals the dark side of the American life. Each used various literary tools to portray their view of America.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Wound Dresser by John Adams: A Review
    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Wound Dresser by John Adams: A Review

    What I found interesting was that when Adams was working on this piece, his father was dying of Alzheimer’s disease. This gave Adams the ability to connect with Whitman’s poem on a much deeper level. Not just by having an awareness of dying, but by caring for people who are dying. Lyrically, this piece start out with a man reminiscing of caring for wounded soldiers in the hospital. It was his job do change the dressings on the wounded soldiers. What I noticed most was how Adams reflected the mood and tone of the lyrics by using odd combinations of instruments, and unusual harmonic combinations. The bugle style trumpet, with a synthesizer, and some extreme ranges on the first violin produce a sense of misery or weakness that couples with the baritone’s lyrics perfectly. The first violin’s solo was beautiful but yet projected a somehow painful, sorrowful feel. When the strings all began to play, it was slow…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Langston Hughes
    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Langston Hughes

    The structure of this poem isn't the traditional form of poetry, matter of fact, it that he begins with a first person statement then after an indentation; he begins elaborating on it kind of like a list. Hughes shows how important each individual statement is by separating the start of each stanza and indenting after each statement, which gives each line an important significance in being part of the poem. In the second stanza Hughes informs the reader that he, a Negro, has been a slave. As the poem continues, different images are placed inside the reader’s head and the reader realizes the progress of a Negro and all that they have done. After being a slave he was also a worker. “ Under my hand the pyramids arose, / I made mortar for the Woolworth Building (5-6)”. For example, back in ancient Egypt 2,000 years ago there were workers building the…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare And Contrast I Too Sing America And Still I Rise
    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare And Contrast I Too Sing America And Still I Rise

    The Harlem Renaissance was a celebration of African American culture in the 1920s. During this celebration of culture, artists of this time expressed discontent felt by African Americans with segregation through poetry. I, Too, Sing America and Still I Rise are two works during the Harlem Renaissance. They both are written by with the author as the speaker and they both address whites telling them that they should be debased to suppress blacks.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis
    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis

    For Hughes America was no longer what he had thought it was. He lost all hope in America and the “American Dream” leading him to write “A Dream Deferred”. The dream of freedom and success must have been recalled and it must have just disappeared like it never did exist. His whole world had been “turned upside down” as he got older. Hughes never did get to see that there is a reason to always keep on fighting.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    I Hear America Singing And I Too Comparison
    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages

    I Hear America Singing And I Too Comparison

    Many Americans perceive their country differently, whether it appears as the land of freedom and liberty, or the land of oppression and injustice. In the case of modernistic writer Walt Whitman, his poem "I Hear America Singing" expresses America as the land of the hardworking and the humble. He focuses on the idea of the American dream and the specific types of people who are the backbone of this country. On the other hand, the view of another modernistic poet, Langston Hughes, is very different. In his poem "I, Too" he sees America as racist and oppressive to the African American race, but he does have hope that America will change in the future. Despite their differing views of America, Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes use strong literary…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Analysis and Interpretation of "I, Too Sing America" by Langston Hughes
    • 1136 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analysis and Interpretation of "I, Too Sing America" by Langston Hughes

    Poem "I, Too Sing America " is considered to be very characteristic for radical poetry of Langston Hughes. The majority of literary critiques and historians refer to Hughes as one of the first American poets, who set the standards and examples how to challenge the post-World War I ethnic nationalism. His poetry contributed and shaped to some extent the politics of the Harlem Renaissance. In analysis of Black poetry Charles S. Johnson wrote that the new racial poetry of the Negro is the expression of something more than experimentation in a new technique; it marks the birth of a new racial consciousness and self-conception. It is first of all a frank acceptance of race, but the recognition of this difference without the usual implications of disparity (145). Being acquainted with many Hughes 's works, for instance "Our Land," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and of course "I, Too Sing America," Johnson confirmed that poet had a strong sense of "race pride" and characterized Hughes 's poetry to be "without doubt the finest expression of this new Negro Poetry" (145).…

    • 1136 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Importance of birthdays
    • 270 Words
    • 1 Page

    Importance of birthdays

    Whitman always refers to his dreams as sources of truth because they are a reflection of his inner self when he isn't taking on a social role or seeking the pleasures of his life. He is very peaceful and expresses this need of comrades in "calamus." He goes into the woods alone and meditates about being surrounded by friends. He is consistently celebrating unity and acceptance, the acceptance of yourself and what you reflect in society, I think it's crazy how he had this vision of us still yearning for all the things he wrote about. It reminds me of the time I was on the R train and this hippie came in with his guitar and started playing a song where he would list every kind of job, and various nationalities. He said his song was called…

    • 270 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Appreciation of I Hear American Singing
    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Appreciation of I Hear American Singing

    I Hear America Singing is a poem written by Walt Whitman, who was an American poet, essayist and journalist. He was in the period of the transition of transcendentalism and realism, and his works were incorporated with both views. Meanwhile, Whitman was the father of free verse. I Hear America Singing was published in 1860, in which Whitman depicted a concert of his fellow Americans.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    I Sit and Look Out
    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I Sit and Look Out

    If, ‘I Hear America Singing’ depicts a brighter and more up-beat society; ‘I Sit and Look Out’ describes a dark, sad, corrupted, sorrowful world. Walt Whitman uses sad words describing emotion and just all sorts of corruption imaginable. In this sense the entire poem is a poignant criticism of life, with the speaker acting as a detached observer, finally leaving it upon the reader to react and judge against the malady of life that the poet shows within the framework of just ten lines.…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More