I am the people (Sandburg, set by H. Weiss) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


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.

Authorship

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Chicago Poems

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Helen L. Weiss

Date added to the website: 2008-06-17.

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