| 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. | 5 |
| 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.
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Brief Analysis
In Sandburg's poem I am the People, the Mob , Sandburg again pays tribute to the common people of Chicago . In this poem, Sandburg makes a point of not individualizing each person, but defines the blue-collar workers as a �mob� and a �mass.� Sandburg salutes the workers by attributing everything great that has been made in the world to them. Sandburg describes how the common people are the ones who actually do all the work and help the world. He is discussing how it is not the architect who lays the bricks to build massive buildings, and it is not the great leaders like Napoleon who won the entire battle. It is the mob, the common people that execute these wonders. At the end of the poem, Sandburg seems to be upset that these people do not receive any credit for the great work that they do. He dreams of the day when the common people will be recognized for their work, and when they will be looked at in the same way that the great people are for the wonders of this world. This poem is especially applicable in the case of the fire. It is important to remember that although the mayor played the part of a leader, it was the people of Chicago who really led the recovery of the city. The common people were those who volunteered for the committees and who helped erect shelter houses for the people that lost their homes.