This week's Poetry Pairing matches Walt Whitman's timeless poem "I Hear America Singing" with "Occupy Wall Street: A Frenzy That Fizzled," a DealBook column that assessed the impact of the Occupy Wall Street movement on its first anniversary.
After reading the poem and column, tell us what you think — or suggest other Times content that could be matched with the poem instead.
Poem
As June Jordan put it, "As Shakespeare is to England, Dante to Italy, Tolstoy to Russia, Goethe to Germany, Aghostino Neto to Angola, Pablo Neruda to Chile, Mao-Tse-Tung to China, and Ho Chi Minh to Vietnam, who is the great American writer, the distinctively American poet, the giant American 'literatus?' Undoubtedly, the answer will be Walt Whitman." His poem, "I Hear America Singing," appeared in Leaves of Grass:
I Hear America Singing
By Walt Whitman
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.
Times Selection Excerpt
In the column "Occupy Wall Street: A Frenzy That Fizzled," Andrew Ross Sorkin writes:
It will be an asterisk in the history books, if it gets a mention at all.
A year ago this week, the Occupy Wall Street movement got under way in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. The loose group of protesters, frustrated by the economic downturn, sought to blame Wall Street and corporate America for many of the nation's ills.
While the movement's first days did not receive much news coverage, it soon turned into a media frenzy, with some columnists comparing its importance to that of the Arab Spring, which led to the overthrow of leaders in several Middle Eastern and African countries, spurred by social media. Images of the Wall Street protesters getting arrested were looped on news channels and featured on the covers of newspapers. Big banks — and the famous Charging Bull statue that is an icon of Wall Street — were fortified with barricades. By the end of the year, Time magazine had named the protester its Person of the Year, perhaps rightly given the revolutions taking place around the world, but the magazine also lumped Occupy Wall Street in among the many meaningful movements taking place.
But now, 12 months later, it can and should be said that Occupy Wall Street was — perhaps this is going to sound indelicate — a fad.
That is not to say that Occupy Wall Street had no impact. It created an important national conversation about economic inequality and upward mobility. The chant, "We are the 99 percent," has become part of the lexicon. Its message has subtly been woven throughout the Obama administration's re-election campaign, in the Democrats' position on everything from taxes on the highest earners to the soaring levels of student debt.
After reading the poem and column, tell us what you think — or suggest other Times content that could be matched with the poem instead.
See more about the collaboration and ideas for using any week's pairing for teaching and learning »
By SHANNON DOYNE 20 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/poetry-pairing-i-hear-america-singing/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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