Using Walt Whitman’s poem I Hear America Singing as inspiration (see poem below), participants in the TPS special topics workshop American Views and Voices each wrote a poem. Their creative works reflect the diverse voices of America represented in Library of Congress online collections and resources they explored. Those explorations focused on ethnic and cultural collections, inventors, women’s suffrage and responses to wars and crises.
Click here to read the participant poems
I Hear America Singing - 1900
by Walt Whitman
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 tands,
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.
2010 Participant Poems
American View and Voices – 2010
By Denny H
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear…slaves in the cotton fields, African-American churches rejoicing in freedom in the eyes of God. The collective songs of slaves in pain and anguish.
I hear…the rhythmic tapping of the telegraphers’ key. The hum of messages along the telegraph wires. The joyful outburst and crushed spirits of messages received.
I hear…the groans of Chinese laborers in the gold mines of California. The constant clinking of hammer on steel on the transcontinental railroad. The quite whispers of displaced Americans.
I hear…the long simmering aspirations of the underappreciated. The sounds of a struggle to win basic rights. The shouts of joy for a hard won success.
I hear…fading cries of long lost cultures. The enduring sounds of the disappearing wild. The rhythms of Native Americans struggling to retain the past.
I hear...old voices reliving horrors and joys of the past. Familiar voices spinning yarns from youthful times. From these I see my past and hear my future.
American View and Voices – 2010
By Dawn L
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear lies and misrepresentations
Facts distorted by the camera
In order to tell the story of America
How one wants it to be told
I hear sounds and voices
Across the land and oceans and air
Due to the curiosity and innovative nature
Of Alexander Graham Bell
I hear voices of a different nation
Coming from the East, but not via Ellis
From the East via the West
To an island of angels
Asking permission to make a new home
I hear the collective cries of the women
Requesting, pleading, demanding, defending the right
To have a voice
And to be heard
I hear the silencing of voices
Voices different than the popular belief
Until those voices sound and look the same on the outside
Hopefully, though, the voices remain strong and different on the inside
Waiting for the day to be heard again
I hear patriotism
I hear strength
I hear slander
I hear sadness
I hear uncertainty
I hear
American View and Voices – 2010
By Mel J
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear…
A struggle to define ‘selfness’
the view of self both shaping
and shaped by
the outside
by the other
The scratching
haunted recordings
of even then historic
words live on
to inspire
exclusion
persecution
leads to stronger communities
isolation results
in independence
using the words
of the other
to interrogate
to expose
“for I would have thought
there would be plenty
of people
who would have liked
to have him”
I hear a surprising calm
in their voices
for change
is nothing new
American View and Voices – 2010
By Tami S
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear…songs of toil and strife, of joy and laughter,
The slaves singing their work songs in cadence, spirituals lifted up,
The Free men singing of Jim Crow, injustice and marches of Civil Rights –
“We Shall Overcome,”
The Wright Brothers singing their ideas to wing, away to touch the future –
“have…not even a faint glimpse of what their discovery is going to bring to
the children of men.” Amos Root
The Manzanar Free Press singing to captive, relocated Japanese-Americans
Women singing songs of suffrage, to be equal, to be allowed to vote,
Indians, singing of the old ways even as the new ways are pressed on them,
A mighty blow befalls America, yet “we will fight for tolerance, equality,
freedom for all mankind” a business school director in Madison WI, 9 Dec 1941
Future songs stemming from lines written deep in our American Memory.
American View and Voices – 2010
By Jed Haupt
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear…
echoes of a complicated history, a complicated story, full of contradictions, no easy, simple, or neat way to listen to the echoes.
the scramble for innovation, competition, momentum in discovery, building in the foundation, and hearing the echoes of before…
my mother asserting herself, the feminists from the 60’s and 70’s, her voice, her passion for women’s choices regarding their bodies, her support for strong female political candidates.
the tragedy, the footsteps of the Trail of Tears, the silence of forgotten languages and traditions.
the sound of the water lapping the side of my boat as I float through the wilderness one day after 9/11, wondering what the world will be like 5 days later when I get back.
American View and Voices – 2010
By Jeff A
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear…Jim Crow calling from behind the whites
Former slaves telling their stories of horror and hope
The NAACP proclaiming rights and liberties for all
Minstrels singing their offensive tunes
Mankind helping us to transcend space and time
By letting us hear and move over long distances
Chinese and Japanese asking for the promises
That are part of the American way
And over all of them
Are the voices of those who fought and died
So I can hear all of America
American View and Voices – 2010
By Carol W
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear the echoes of the African-Americans
Their voices crying out for freedom and equality
Their struggles for achieving their goal of being equal
I hear the echoes of voices and video in Edison’s new inventions
While politicians do not see importance in these items, society is starting to take hold of the Kinetoscope and Cylinder Phonograph
I hear the echoes of voices of the Japanese descendents
Trying to show their pride in America
I hear the echoes of voices of the women suffragettes
Encouraging each other to gain equality with men and African-Americans
I hear the echoes of voices of the Hispanics and Native Americans
Through song telling their story of life long ago of strong for assimilation and education among society
I hear the echoes of those who saw Pearl Harbor and Twin Towers
The shock that rang through the streets after the events that sounded similarly eerie
I hear the echoes of Americans past that sing out to have their stories told.
American View and Voices – 2010
By Michelle A
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear… the courage of the African American students, as they walk with soldiers surrounding them, into a sea of white taunting faces at school.
I hear…the sound of the birth of modern entertainment.
I hear…the voice of Ansel Adams’ pictures, the voices of the Japanese Americans interned in a transitional home called Manzanar, voices of the people “who are anxious to get back into the stream of life and contribute to our victory.”*
I hear…about women suffering for the suffrage of women.
I hear…the inherent sadness of the whites believing they needed to “civilize” the natives
I hear…my own heart pounding when the news of 9/11 started coming in.
I hear…America, past, present and future to come.
*Quote from Ansel Adams in Born Free and Equal, 1944.
American View and Voices – 2010
By Vicki H
I hear the echoes of Americans past –
Their voices, their vision, their legacy,
Speaking to me, an American present and future.
I hear…
Their sepia songs,
Call and response,
Up from the fields,
Secretly spreading the words of escape,
Harmonious undertones crying injustice
I hear…
Voices on the wires, on the beams of light,
Imagination giving voice to silent speakers
A call to come
And distances are vanquished, people linked, 20-sided figures fly
I hear…
Arid winds that sweep the dust to almond eyes
That sweep our Asian citizens to barren camps,
Barbed wire and horse stalls
That drive their young to fiercely fight for freedoms they can only dream.
I hear…the lullaby of woman calling for her own
The swish of skirts
The clack of heels
The babies’ cry
She will not to be denied
I hear…
Pulse of pounding drums the heartbeat of the earth,
Music of a nightbird’s call
A song to greet the dawn or ask permission of a fallen tree, a dying bear,
Melodious flutes echo against the walls of ancient canyons.
I hear…
Mary sobbing for her children,
The cries of father John.
The roar of cannon and shrill of bomb,
The fiery explosion and the scream of anguish
And, in the weeping, the whispered promise of a longed-for peace.
