Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Do you think that all of the singing in the poem is actual singing (as in, "la la la") or metaphorical singing? Does the singing shift from one register to another? How can you tell?
- Is it important that Whitman acknowledges the labor of women alongside that of men? What does it mean that he groups mothers into the category of workers that he creates in the poem?
- Do you think that Whitman's view of manual labor is overly rosy? Is he ignoring any truths about what it means to work a hard job?
- What is the effect of all of the long lines in the poem? How do the long lines intersect with the vision of America that Whitman presents?
- If Whitman were writing the poem today, do you think he'd be writing about the same sorts of folks? Or would he be writing about checkout cashiers, flight attendants, and call center workers? How has labor changed in the good ol' US of A in the past 150 years?