Poets | Members | Poem of the Day | Top 40 | Search | Comments | Privacy
May 12th, 2008 - we have 237 poets, 8036 poems and 17435 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.

Added: on February 16th, 2006 at 2:51 PM | Viewed: 4700 times | Comments and analysis of I Am The People, The Mob by Carl Sandburg Comments (3)


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 3 of 3, added on April 12th, 2006 at 1:44 PM.

I believe that Carl Sandburg has a way of getting on a lower level and feeling the people and their beliefs. He saw real people and showed them for who they were.

sydney Elizabeth from United States
Comment 2 of 3, added on February 20th, 2006 at 2:40 PM.

I rather think he is referring more to events like mob uprisings, such as the Haymarket Riots, or, considering the time frame, the Russian revolution, where people took politics into their own hands, fought for change, either won or lost, and then descended back into the faceless, sheeplike mob.

J.B. Lee from United States
Comment 1 of 3, added on February 16th, 2006 at 2:51 PM.

From what I understand, I believe that it is portrayed that the earth is the narrator and "spatter a few red drops for history to remember" could be a volcano.

Courtney from United States

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!

Poem Info

Sandburg Info
Copyright © 2000-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson. All Rights Reserved. Links | Bookstore