Segregation In Walt Whitman's I Hear America Singing

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Segregation has always existed, yet the free verse poem “I, Too” by Langston Hughes is a refreshing response to the segregation in Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing”. Seemingly, “I Hear America Singing” describes America as only consisting of white people; Whitman becomes completely ignorant to the colored Americans. Page 451 of the literature textbook portrays this frustrating ignorance. “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics… The carpenter singing… The mason singing…” Historical knowledge allows readers to deduct that colored people weren’t accepted in the working class hierarchy, but automatically qualified as slaves. On the contrary, page 452 portray a colored American’s opinion. “I am the darker
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fall off. In the poems ‘' I hear America singing'' written by Walt Whitman during the celebration of Independence Day, and ‘'I too sing America'' by Langston Hughes during the period of discrimination and segregation in America, both authors use literary devices to portray the structure of the American society and the idea of nationalism. Although both poems illustrate the American ideals, they portray different concepts about them. First, the poem ‘'I hear America singing'' shows the togetherness…

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