Different Perspectives of American Patriotism shown through Poetry
- Kelsey Fagan
- Apr 7, 2016
- 6 min read
“Per definition, patriotism is the pride and devotion to one’s homeland,” and in America “joining the army is a reasonable choice to display patriotism.” “American patriotism is rooted in conservative values which include honor, loyalty, and bravery among others, and thus Americans serving in the military and fighting in wars are highly regarded,”(Jaaskelainen 1). According to different perspectives this could be a good or bad thing. In Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” American patriotism is glorified since it is this special link that unites all the hard working people in the country as a whole, unlike cummings’, who in “next to of course god america i”, depicts American patriotism as blinding to the people for it glorifies war and violence. This is shown throughout these poems through writing techniques such as structure, figurative language, and tone.
In Whitman’s “ I Hear America Singing”, he depicts America as a proud nation with healthy individualists who engage in productive, creative, and happy labor. He shows this by writing about the multiple carols he hears from these workers. For example he writes “The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands…” (6). Notice how the shoemaker and the hatter are singing while they work, this is how he portrays that they are happy doing what they do for a living. Along with the people listed above, Whitman also mentions mechanics, carpenters, masons, deckhands, woodcutters, ploughboys, mothers, young wives who are working, and girls who are sewing or washing. These are the people who labor everyday to make everyone else’s lives easier or more luxurious. They simply make society run smoother and usually do not get recognized for it. Whitman stresses the importance of these people by using descriptors such as “robust”, which means healthy and vigorous, “friendly”, “blithe”, which means happy and joyous, and “strong”. When writing about patriotism, soldiers are usually the ones who are glorified with these types of words, but instead Whitman uses this vocab to glorify the people, who usually go unnoticed, the normal American workers. The carols are also used throughout the poem in order to portray unity between the individual workers. Singing is a universal language and in the poem all the workers unite under one common American identity through the carols. For example throughout the poem he says that each worker sings about “what belongs to him or her and to no one else,” but though they are individual and they have their own individual songs they all still sing “with open mouths their strong and melodious songs,” (9,11).
Whitman also uses structure in his poem to emphasize the importance of carols by making the poem as a whole have a carol-like feel. The poem is set up simple, it is a one stanza, 11-line poem in free verse and the sentence and line formats are similar. For example, he writes “The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,” and “The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,” (4). Notice how these two lines are similar in that they contain the word “the” at the beginning of the sentence and contain the phrase “as he…” these characteristics allow the reader to read the poem at a quick pace and gives it a rhythmic whimsicality like different carols in rapid succession.
In the beginning of cummings’ “next to of course god america i” he depicts America as a mix of many cultures and as diverse, for it has many different languages. He also depicts America as a very patriotic place. He does this by starting his poem with multiple patriotic symbols and phrases. For example he writes “say can you see by the dawn’s early…” and “country tis of…”(3,4) which are allusions to “The Star Spangled Banner” and “My Country tis of Thee”. Notice these two songs are very enthusiastic and state ones love for America. These songs and many of the other symbols he includes in this poem are typical ways in which patriotism is seen in America.
Then once he establishes the fact that America as a whole is very diverse and patriotic his poem takes an unexpected turn. He states that he believes patriotism blinds many people of America for it hides the ugliness of war and bloodshed, promotes violence, and glorifies war. In doing these things listed above it manipulates many people into doing stuff they normally wouldn’t do. For example, many people would not normally join the army and voluntarily risk dying for their country. Though patriotism makes it seem as though it is a beautiful thing to be killed for your country and it praises the people that do risk their lives for their freedom, thus people decide to join the army. He shows this thought through the use of sarcasm and ignorant language throughout his poem. For example he writes, “Why talk of beauty what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead…” (9-10). Another example is when he writes, “they did not stop to think they died instead then shall the voice of liberty be mute?” (12-13). This last quote is cummings literally asking, is American pride really worth the bloodshed it causes in order to keep it strong? Thus cummings’ poem takes a critical look on patriotism in America and asks the question, are we interpreting it correctly? Then he seems to suggest if we decide to continue as a highly patriotic country we should reevaluate what patriotism is about.
When analyzing structure of this poem at first glance it may seem very odd since there is very little punctuation, it is all in lowercase, and the grammar is very unusual. Though if one looks closer at the poem we can see that it is really a traditional sonnet with 14-lines and a rhyme scheme that structures the poem into three sections. Due to these three sections we are able to clearly see the difference in tone from the beginning, where he is glorifying America for its beautiful patriotism and diversity, to the end, when he explains how patriotism is blinding and the horrors that causes for America. For example, in the first section 1-4 he writes, “love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh”(2), notice how he is simply showing his love of patriotism in this line. Then in lines 5-9 he switches to a sarcastic tone and begins to use ignorant words. For example he writes, “thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gory by jingo by gee by gosh by gum” (7-8). Notice he uses “gory”, “jingo”, “gee”, “gosh” and “gum”, these are all words that are not very sophisticated and sound like it would be used by someone who is uneducated.
Altogether even though it seems as though cummings and Whitman have opposing views on patriotism and whether or not America should have it, they do seem to agree on one thing. They both seem to be fighting against sending more people into the war. Whitman does this by glorifying the normal workers to get people to see the importance of staying back from war and working. Cummings does this by questioning our view on patriotism and asking us to step back and analyze whether or not it is helping or hurting our country to send more of these people to war when we could use them to work in America.
Works Cited
cummings, e.e. "next to of course god america i." The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York, London: W.W Norton, n.d. 718. Print.
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Whitman, Walt. "I Hear America Singing." The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York, London: W.W Norton, n.d. 865-66. Print.
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