In his first line he exhorts: "I hear America singing, the various Christmas carols I hear" (I Hear, 1), referring to the people as one group of Americans who are all somehow united by their individual melodies. Each individual has experienced a different life path, with different difficulties and different circumstances. That said, the people singing these songs are all driven by their ambitions and have achieved a level of freedom that they couldn't have achieved anywhere else in the world. Whitman writes, “Each sings what belongs to him or her and to no one else,” suggesting the importance of independence and individuality. Just as they sing the different melodies that together form a melody, the different circumstances from which they come unite them as Americans. Paradoxically, it is the fact that everyone in America lives a different life path, with different goals and different circumstances that unites them. It is the ability to express one's individuality that forms the American, in the same way that individual songs form a melody. In Walt Whitman's “One Song, America, Before I Go,” the speaking soldier recognizes the danger of the war he must fight. The soldier, however, is content to face the dangers, taking on the characteristics of a patriot and believing that his sacrifice will guarantee a better America for future generations. With the soldiers