Langston Hughes sticks it to Walt Whitman in the next two lines when he states "Eat in the kitchen / then." The last two lines of this poem are the symbol of equality. The kitchen in this poem symbolizes the bigger picture of American society and how unequal it is. That's why sitting in a kitchen in this poem is an ordeal. The next two lines are contextually much more significant in the panorama of this poem in response to Walt Whitman. The next lines state, “Moreover/they will see how beautiful I am/and they will be ashamed.” This line of the poem is a huge jab at Walt Whitman. What Langston Hughes is telling Walt Whitman is that he actually forgot to mention slavery and African Americans in "I Hear America Singing" and that if he were alive today he would be ashamed of