Analysis of I Am The People, The Mob

Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)



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.


Scheme ABCDEAFGHCIFJKLKDMNODPQ
Poetic Form
Metre 11010010101 111110111011 111 1101001001010 1101 110100110010001 1110010110 111111010 1101111010111 111010011101 1010111111010 10110111110 11101111101 01 011111010011 1110010101101 1101011010110 1010101100110 01111111111 0111111100101 101010110110 10111101111010 0101011011
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,199
Words 200
Sentences 20
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 23
Lines Amount 23
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 804
Words per stanza (avg) 197
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 02, 2023

1:00 min read
116

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor best known for poetry. more…

All Carl Sandburg poems | Carl Sandburg Books

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