“I Hear America Singing,” one of Whitman's most famous songs, is a hymn to the American nation. I think it can be divided into four sections. The first line is the opening part, which is the central sentence of the poem and from which we know that the poet can focus on various Christmas carols. The second section starts from line 2 to line 6, which states the situation in which people from various backgrounds sing. The next section includes only line 8, which specifically indicates songs belonging to women. The last three lines constitute the last section, concluding the essence of the poem that the poem is a hymn to every American person and every individual is special. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay “I Hear America Singing” Essay Analysis The speaker tells the story in the first person. It is as if the speaker is speaking to his audience face to face. The poem uses the first narrative to strengthen the relationship between the speaker and the audience. The speaker just points out the fact that people of different professions sing at work or on the way to work, but doesn't say much about how he feels. The implication of “I” narration can take the audience into the mind of the speaker and imagine the scene for themselves. The diction of the poem is simple and direct. In the whole poem there is not a single new word. There are only names of professions such as “carpenter” and “woodcutter”. Reading poetry is like chatting with an acquaintance and talking about what's happening in the neighborhood. It simply describes family life as if we were at home and heard our mother singing while she washed the dishes. The tone of the poem is cheerful and sanguine. The poem paints a cheerful picture of people singing happily in different places. Carpenter or boatman, outdoors or indoors, everyone is happy with their work and even women are satisfied with housework, no matter how trivial it is. The last line “Singing with your mouth open” clearly shows their joy because it is an act one is likely to do when happy. Furthermore, most of the adjectives in the poems such as “companion, sturdy, friendly” in line 10 are laudatory. The literary devices are parallelism and metaphor. When the speaker talks about the singing of various types of people, the sentences are aligned in parallel. For example, lines 3, 4 and 6 use the structure “the+ (the name of the profession) +as…”. Metaphor is the most important literary device in the poem. The title itself is a metaphor. “America that sings” is actually “the American people that sing”. The people of the listed fields refers to people from all walks of life while "the mother, the young wife and the girl" refers to the women of all age groups or all women in another word. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Personally, the poem praises the optimism of common people, who come from the working class and shows us the happy lives in America. The main purpose is to promote an important American spirit or belief, individualism. In line 9 “Everyone sings what belongs to her and no one else” she illustrates that each individual person is unique and what they own is independent of any other person. More importantly, the poem conveys another unique American spirit of “rags to riches with hard work.” Since the founding of the country, it is believed that every individual can start from scratch only if he is diligent enough. I believe the reason why the poet chooses working class examples also shows the world that everyone has the right to live a happy life no matter what they do. Works Cited: Booth, S.,.