I Hear America Singing

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever yet shone upon;
I will make divine magnetic lands,
  With the love of comrades,
  With the life-long love of comrades.

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America, and 
along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks,
  By the love of comrades,
    By the manly love of comrades.

For you these, from me, O Democracy, to serve you, ma femme!
For you! for you, I am trilling these songs,
  In the love of comrades,
    In the high-towering love of comrades.

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics -- each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
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;
The wood-cutter's song -- the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning,
      or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;	 
The delicious singing of the mother -- or of the young wife at work -- 
      or of the girl sewing or washing -- Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day -- At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.