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.

—“I Hear America Singing,”
Walt Whitman

In what three ways does Whitman use repetition in this passage from his poem?

1.by repeating rhymed words
2.by repeating “singing”
3.by including the workers’ first names
4.by starting each line with a type of worker
5.by ending each line with what each person does while singing

The harlem renaissance dawned in an era of pervasive racism and segregation. although legally "free," many african americans were still bound by ideas that had their roots in the slavery of earlier centuries. identity and freedom are important ideas presented in many of the poems from the harlem renaissance. furthermore, the values of identity and freedom are not unique to particular times and places. as hughes expresses in "dream variations," all humans want to be able to develop their identities in freedom. what role does freedom play in the poems you read in this unit? what is required of a society to enable each individual to be true to his or her identity and be free to live by that identity? write about at least three of the poems, describing how the poet uses imagery to depict freedom and identity, the lack of it, or the desire for it.