Entry 47: Real or Romantic

In Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” a feeling of acceptance or even contentment runs through many of the voices. Considering the long hours and low pay of laborers in the nineteenth century, would you say that Whitman is romanticizing or idealizing the lot of workers? Or do the songs express a realistic and positive aspect of American life at that time? Would workers now be more or less likely to express the kinds of sentiments that Whitman celebrates? Explain your response, using specific examples from the text.

• Considering the long hours and low pay of the laborers in the nineteenth century, Walt Whitman is both romanticizing and idealizing the lot of the workers just by writing down his impressions of the different workers (and he may not be fully aware of what the workers do). He writes his poem in this way because he has never experienced the hardships of a worker (since he was a writer). The ideal society that Walt Whitman described in his poem "I Hear America Singing" is a society that Whitman hopes to see. However, the poem may still depict part of the realistic and positive aspect of American life at the time because of religion - everyone sincerely believes that they must work hard and be a honest and optimistic person in order to reach salvation and  go to heaven when they die, and not go to hell. The workers nowadays are less likely to express the kinds of sentiments that Whitman celebrates because the majority of workers are becoming less and less religious, and not really accepting their fate of always being hardworking. They no longer feel the feeling of acceptance. To sum it up, the workers are generally becoming more pessimistic.