38 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. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
1. America itself is personified in Whitman’s poem as a human who sings and celebrates. America sings its song reverently and nobly and celebrates success and growth with pride and vigor. Chicago itself is personified as a human as well, but in Chicago’s case, the man who is Chicago is “brawling,” “wicked,” “brutal,” and “cunning” (Lines 6-10). He too celebrates success and growth, but progress and construction come at the cost of “Wrecking” and “breaking” (Lines 15-17). Furthermore, his youthful, bold celebration is depicted as crasser and more irreverent than America’s, as the man “laughs […] half-naked, sweating, proud […]” (Line 23).
2. “I Hear America Singing” evokes a joyous, proud, dignified tone while “Chicago” offers a tone that is admiring and prideful, but grittier and blunter; importantly, with regard to Chicago’s vices or negative traits, the tone is also unremorseful. In reading Whitman’s poem aloud, you might draw out the long vowel sounds (e.g., “blithe” in Line 2, “leaves” in Line 4, “open” and “melodious” in Line 11). You might emphasize assonance (“varied carols” in Line 1, “hatter—stands” in Line 6) and alliterative effects (“wife at work” in Line 8). Overall, there is a quality of euphony (lines/sounds that are musically pleasant) to Whitman’s poem with a consistent rhythm that results from the list of singers in Lines 3-9.
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
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For You O Democracy
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Sing the Body Electric
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Song of Myself
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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
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