I Hear America Singing

“Pioneers, O Pioneers” by Walt Whitman (1865)

Written during the full pitch of the Civil War, the poem represents Whitman at full tilt as the self-anointed America’s Poet. Here the poet celebrates the difficult work of a generation of Americans determined to settle the West, to push past the known and into the vast and uncertain unknown west of the Ohio River. The focus again is on the hard work and endurance of these exemplar Americans who, despite the ongoing war, premised an America rebuilt and stronger than before the war. Much like the blue-collar workers in “I Hear America Singing,” Whitman celebrates the tenacity, determination, and heroic strength of pioneers as the epitome of the American character.

“The People, Yes” by Carl Sandburg (1936)

The Poetry Foundation website contains excerpts of “The People, Yes.” Carl Sandburg happily acknowledged his debt to Whitman and his broad, sweeping affirmation of America. Much as Whitman projected his poem against a nation edging into a civil war, this Sandberg poem, actually a book-length complex of poems, was projected against an America mired in the Great Depression. The celebration of the spirit, energy, moxie, and diligence of the unsung Americans facing the grace challenge of poverty and despair reflects Whitman’s thematic argument, and Sandberg’s deft use of free verse as well acknowledges his admiration for the liberating freedoms of Whitman’s prosody.