Poets | Bookstore | Poem of the Day | Top 40 | Search | Comments | Privacy
May 19th, 2013 - we have 234 poets, 8,025 poems and 56,671 comments.
Carl Sandburg - I Am The People, The Mob

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.

Share |

Added: Feb 4 2004 | Viewed: 13885 times | Comments and analysis of I Am The People, The Mob by Carl Sandburg Comments (19)

I Am The People, The Mob - Comments and Information

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

Comment 19 of 19, added on August 9th, 2012 at 7:28 PM.
cPpyrgBCAOXsKGQUym

Ah, thank you. You have jogged me into acoitn and tomorrow I will set aside all my other projects (Pomeranians girls in season for one) and sit down to my next blog. xoox Karleene

Peter from Oman
Comment 18 of 19, added on May 25th, 2011 at 5:40 PM.

Sandburg is the "I", you are the "I", I am the "I". Everyone is the "I". If you are a human being, you are the speaker.

Franco S from United States
Comment 17 of 19, added on February 7th, 2011 at 7:54 AM.

who is the I in this poem??

magta from Philippines

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 19 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own.

Poem Info

Sandburg Info
Copyright © 2000-2012 Gunnar Bengtsson. All Rights Reserved. Links | Bookstore