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.
SANDBURG, Carl. In: Carl Sandburg. BODE, Carl. Highlights of American Literature, 1971, p.35.
