Wind Song - A poem by Carl Sandburg


Poets \| Bookstore \| Poem of the Day \| Top 40 \| Search \| Comments \| Privacy May 25th, 2013 - we have 234 poets, 8,025 poems and 56,671 comments.

Carl Sandburg - Wind Song

LONG ago I learned how to sleep,
In an old apple orchard where the wind swept by counting its money and throwing it away,
In a wind-gaunt orchard where the limbs forked out and listened or never listened at all,
In a passel of trees where the branches trapped the wind into whistling, “Who, who are you?”
I slept with my head in an elbow on a summer afternoon and there I took a sleep lesson.
There I went away saying: I know why they sleep, I know how they trap the tricky winds.
Long ago I learned how to listen to the singing wind and how to forget and how to hear the deep whine,
Slapping and lapsing under the day blue and the night stars:
  Who, who are you?
  
Who can ever forget
listening to the wind go by
counting its money
and throwing it away?

Share |

Added: Feb 4 2004 | Viewed: 8938 times |

Comments (2)

Wind Song - Comments and Information
Poet: Carl Sandburg Poem: 33. Wind Song Volume: Smoke and Steel - V. Mist Forms Year: Published/Written in 1922 Poem of the Day: May 8 2010 Comment 2 of 2, added on August 24th, 2007 at 3:12 PM. I have lived this poem many times---most notably when I was 15 and sat in the orchard at my parents' home. It was in farm country and the wind passed through the autumn leaves with a lush song and tossed them into the meadow---truly, the wind was "counting its money and throwing it away." I live in the woods now and whenever the wind is right, I can fall gently asleep to its whispering song. Linda Wilson from United States Comment 1 of 2, added on November 7th, 2004 at 8:03 PM. I came across this poem in the summer of 1979, and it touched me to the heart as just a couple of weeks before that I had dreamt one night exactly the same wind, with its deep whine and a whiff of unforgettably fresh air passing through my face. After I awaked it then seemed to me that I was the only to know how to listen the wind. But after having acquainted with the "Wind Song" I realized that I was not alone. However, such a windy dream now comes to me very seldom, much more rarely that I can in my real life to listen the wind or to go over my beloved Sandburg's lines. Anyway, I wonder whether there are many people or not who sometimes hear the wind in their dreams? Stanislava from Lithuania More Comments >> Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, Wind Song, has received 2 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own.

Poem Info
Poet: Carl Sandburg Poem: 33. Wind Song Volume: Smoke and Steel - V. Mist Forms Year: Published/Written in 1922 Last read: 2013-05-25 01:55:39 Poem of the Day: May 8 2010 Viewed 8938 times. Added Feb 4 2004.

Sandburg Info
Biography More Poems (442 poems) Carl Sandburg books