A look back at Walt Whitman’s
‘I Hear America Singing’

A look back at
Walt Whitman’s
‘I Hear America
Singing’

Construction workers eat lunch on a steel beam high above New York City (© Bettmann/Getty Images)

Man standing on subway platform between two trains, duffel at his feet (© Walter Leporati/Getty Images)

The United States is a nation of hard workers. It’s not all work all the time, though — Americans celebrate and socialize too, building stronger communities along the way.

Beloved American poet Walt Whitman captures this dual spirit. His collection of poetry Leaves of Grass is read still by U.S. secondary school students and adults alike. This poem from the 1860 collection, titled “I Hear America Singing,” imagines the sound of American life, drawing parallels between singing and the hum of everyday work, from dawn until dusk.

Walt Whitman, 1869 (Library of Congress/Frank Pearsall)

Walt Whitman, 1869 (Library of Congress/Frank Pearsall)

“The appeal, I think, for [Whitman] is to show America actually in the process of being created by its own people,” says Karen Karbiener, a professor at New York University who is writing a Whitman biography.

“This is the nation making its own self. You've got all of these people making the nation, and Whitman is listening and gathering that and putting it into a poem.”

We hope the photos we have gathered — from candid snapshots to formal portraits, across different decades and regions — reflect accurately the spirit of Americans at work or purposefully off work.

Diner counter with “OPEN 24 HOURS” sign and cook and server (© Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images)

Woman using air drill on aircraft part in factory (Library of Congress/Alfred T. Palmer)

Amish barn raising with workers on frame and horse and buggy passing (© Tortora/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Stonemasons splitting and shaping rock at building site (© Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Man dragging a small boat through marsh grasses (© Ed Lallo/Getty Images)

Cobbler repairing a leather shoe in a workshop filled with shoes (© Michael P. Farrell/Albany Times Union/Getty Images)

Loggers on springboards beside a giant tree, pausing to pose as they cut it (© The Montifraulo Collection/Getty Images)

Woman holding baby while helping girl and boy use tablet and laptop at table (© Yalonda M. James/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images)

Man in uniform sitting at kitchen table as woman hugs him from behind (© Mayra Beltran/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images)

Workers in high-visibility vests walking past a railroad crossing (© Heather Ainsworth/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Women holding microphones and singing karaoke under colorful lights (© Molly Riley/Washington Post/Getty Images)

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

The day what belongs to the day — at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

I Hear America Singing

By Walt Whitman

Listen: I Hear America Singing, read by Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate