I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
• Our speaker doesn't waste any time. He (and we can only assume it's a he at this point) jumps right into the poem with a bold declaration: "I hear America Singing."
• Let's just take a moment to acknowledge that the speaker's use of "America" here is figurative. It's not like New York is singing alto while Montana jumps in in a soprano voice. Nope, the word "America" is a symbol for American people more generally.
• But the "singing" is not figurative. This poem is literally about Americans singing songs. Or, in the speaker's words, "varied carols." The speaker acknowledges that Americans sing all different kinds of songs in all different kinds of voices.
• First up: the mechanics. Their voices are "blithe" (which means joyous) and strong. And the mechanics voices are as they "should be." The mechanics meet the speaker's expectations.
• Before we move on, let's be sure to take note of these very long lines. Whitman wrote in free verse, which means that his poems do not have regular rhymes or meter, or even regular line-lengths.
• In fact, these long, free verse lines are perhaps what ol' W.W. is best known for. As we will see as the poem continues, you can cram a whole lot of info into a Whitmanesque long line. (Check out "Form and Meter" for more on that style.)