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Music and Song: A Poem, a Painting, a Print

Monday · August 3, 2026 · Walt Whitman hears America singing, Caravaggio gathers four young musicians, and Yashima Gakutei tunes a shamisen — three works on music and song, presented plainly.
I · Poem

I Hear America Singing

Walt Whitman

The poem is a single verse paragraph of eleven lines. A first-person speaker says he hears America singing, then lists the singers by their trades: the mechanic, the carpenter, the mason, the boatman and deckhand, the shoemaker, the hatter, the wood-cutter, the ploughboy, the mother, the young wife, the girl sewing or washing.[1] Each is described singing the song that belongs to that person and to no one else, by day at work and at night among friends.

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 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 him or 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.
Walt Whitman · from Leaves of Grass
About the maker
Walt Whitman was an American poet, born May 31, 1819, at West Hills on Long Island, New York, and died March 26, 1892, in Camden, New Jersey.[3][4]
He first published Leaves of Grass in 1855, financing the printing himself; this poem entered the book in its 1860 edition and reached its familiar wording in later revisions.[2]
Before his poetry he worked in the printing and newspaper trades, editing the Brooklyn Eagle in the late 1840s.[4]
During the Civil War he volunteered as a nurse in the military hospitals of Washington, D.C.[4]
Sources
  1. Poetry Foundation, “I Hear America Singing” — the source for the full, standard text reproduced here.
  2. The Walt Whitman Archive, encyclopedia entry on the poem — publication in the 1860 Leaves of Grass and its later revision.
  3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Walt Whitman” — biography, including the 1855 self-publication of Leaves of Grass.
  4. Wikipedia, “Walt Whitman” — birth and death dates and places; journalism and Civil War nursing.
II · Painting

The Musicians

Caravaggio

The painting shows four youths pressed into a shallow, crowded space. One at the center tunes a lute; another behind him holds a cornetto, a wind instrument; a third at the left, in loose drapery and small wings, reaches into a cluster of grapes; a sheet of music and a violin rest in the foreground.[1] It is an oil on canvas of about 92 by 118 centimeters, painted around 1597.

Four young musicians in a shallow space; one tunes a lute at the center, another holds a wind instrument, and a winged boy at the left gathers grapes.
Caravaggio, The Musicians, ca. 1597. Oil on canvas, 92.1 × 118.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[1]
About the maker
Caravaggio, born Michelangelo Merisi, was an Italian painter, born September 29, 1571, in Milan and died July 18, 1610, at Porto Ercole in Tuscany.[2][3]
He trained in Milan and moved to Rome around 1592, where the cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte became an early patron.[3]
The Musicians is an early Roman work; it entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1952.[1]
He is known for a stark, dramatic handling of light and shadow that shaped Baroque painting across Europe.[2]
Sources
  1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The Musicians” (accession 52.81) — object page giving title, date, medium, dimensions, and open-access status.
  2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Caravaggio” — biography and the artist’s handling of light.
  3. Wikipedia, “Caravaggio” — birth and death dates and places; Milan training and move to Rome.
III · Woodblock Print

Woman Tuning a Shamisen

Yashima Gakutei

The print shows a woman seated as she tunes a shamisen, the three-stringed Japanese instrument played with a plectrum, while a cat nearby looks at its own reflection.[1] It is a surimono, a privately commissioned woodblock print, made in the mid-1820s and measuring about 21 by 19 centimeters.

A seated woman tuning a long-necked three-stringed shamisen while a cat gazes at its own reflection.
Yashima Gakutei, Woman Tuning a Shamisen and a Cat Looking at its Own Reflection, mid-1820s. Woodblock print (surimono), 20.8 × 18.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[1]
About the maker
Yashima Gakutei was a Japanese artist, born about 1786 and died in 1868, active in the ukiyo-e tradition of woodblock prints.[2]
He was especially known for surimono, privately commissioned prints often paired with poetry, and for book illustration.[2]
He studied under the print artists Totoya Hokkei and Katsushika Hokusai.[2]
He also wrote kyoka, a form of comic verse, which he worked into his prints.[2]
This print is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the H. O. Havemeyer Collection.[1]
Sources
  1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Woman Tuning a Shamisen and a Cat Looking at its Own Reflection” (accession JP2339) — object page with title, artist, date, medium, dimensions, and open-access status.
  2. Wikipedia, “Yashima Gakutei” — biography, surimono practice, teachers, and kyoka verse.