I AM the people--the mob--the crowd--the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is
done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the
world's food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons
come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And
then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand
for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me.
I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted.
I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and
makes me work and give up what I have. And I
forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red
drops for history to remember. Then--I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the
People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer
forget who robbed me last year, who played me for
a fool--then there will be no speaker in all the world
say the name: "The People," with any fleck of a
sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob--the crowd--the mass--will arrive then.

Added: on February 16th, 2006 at 2:51 PM | Viewed: 4700 times | Comments (3)

Poet: Carl Sandburg
Poem: 14. I Am The People, The Mob
Volume: Chicago Poems
- Other Days (1900-1910)
Year: Published/Written in 1900
Poem of the Day: Apr 28 2008

Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, I Am The People, The Mob, has received 3 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by Carl Sandburg with others on the American Poems poetry forum!