Walt Whitman's The I Hear America Singing

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The poem I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman was written before the Emancipation Proclamation. During this time it was common practice to view slaves, or those with colored skin, as property not as people, or citizens. Almost 100 years after I Hear America Singing was written, during the Harlem Renaissance, a black poet, named Langston Hughes wrote a poem in response to the 'missing part' of Whitman's poem. This new poem that Hughes wrote is called I Too, when it was written it sparked a very heated debate. This poem was, most believe, made in response, to add on to Whitmans poem Hughes uderlyed that Whitman had forgotten the people of color. In the poem America Singing Whitman describes the many different citizens of America. The poem