Real or Romantic

Whitman could NOT have been there to experience these songs he's singing. It's just not possible. For one, he sings about the workers being happy and such. Well, why would these workers be happy if they're on an 16 hour work schedule seven days of the week? Purely because they're American, they'll feel different from all the different workers in the world that are basically going through grueling conditions? No, not that. Is it because they're somehow so enthused about working that they start bursting out in songs and rhythms while they're stuck on the cotton mill? I don't think so. I think it's just an overgeneralization that all Americans are happy somehow because they're working no matter what kind of work it is. I'm sure Rockefeller would be happy just sitting on his chair behind his desk, but then again, I'm sure that the 5 year old picking coal out wouldn't be so happy. Once he realizes that there is some sort of strange American spirit inside him that comes from the very land he's standing on trying to burst out of him and sing songs that show his ecstatic nature about working in the coal mines. It's kind of interesting, really.