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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Poems are a very common form of a personal expression... [Coop discussing poems]

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You can write a poem for expressing sadness over losing your pet fish...

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…happiness over the beautiful world around you....

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…love of another person... [Two skeletons in a park]

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…or even love of sushi.

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Seriously! [Sushi roll squashes skeleton]

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Poems work in every scenario imaginable!

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No one knew that better than famous poet Walt Whitman.

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He covered a whole range of topics... including his home country, the United States.

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Though we doubt he ever wrote a poem about sushi.

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What a shame.

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But who was this gloriously bearded fellow, anyway?

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We're glad you asked!

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…Seriously, we're glad…otherwise we made this whole video for nothing.. Girl standing beside a PC shmoop monitor]

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Walt was born in New York in 1819.

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Yeah, we know, he probably wasn't born with a beard, but we're leaving it there 'cause [Walt Whitman as a baby with a beard]

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it looks funny.

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By the age of 12, he fell in love with the art of printing, as well as all things reading,

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books, and even writing.

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And by 17, he was already a teacher in a one classroom schoolhouse. [Whitman teaching in a classroom]

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We're assuming students sat on each other's shoulders, because geez does that sound cramped.

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Walt taught for a few years there before deciding that instead of a teacher, he wanted to be

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a journalist.

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And so, just like that, he started his own newspaper: the Long-Islander. [Whitman's newspaper front cover page]

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Y'know, because he was from Long Island.

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Creative, huh?

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After that, Whitman worked all over America for a bunch of different papers until eventually [Whitman travelling across America]

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finding himself in New Orleans.

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Throughout his travels, he experienced much of what was happening in the country at that

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time, leading him to write that poem about America we mentioned.

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It's called “I Hear America Singing," and it was kind of a big deal.

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It's all about recognizing the work of regular, hard-working Americans.

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The cashiers, the construction workers, the stay-at-home moms…

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They're all important.

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And their jobs might not be as glamorous as say…a famous Hollywood actor, but they're [Actress on the red carpet]

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all super important in making the U.S. of A. the awesome place we know and love.

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So yup!

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Lots of American pride, and not one mention of every single person in America coming together

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and singing “Old MacDonald Had A Farm” in unison. [Floating heads across the USA]

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Not that….we ever thought…that was what it was about….*cough*

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So if you're looking for a guy who will tell you, "yeah, I see you, and I appreciate all

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the hard work you do for this country," you found him!

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Oh, and never try to organize a nation-wide sing along of Old MacDonald….it never ends well… [Whitman sitting in a chair as people appear by the window]

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