poem analysis
Response to Literature
Poem Analysis
Writing Guidelines
Subject: Poem
Form: Analysis
Purpose: To explore meaning
Audience: Instructor
Sample Poem
Read the poem below and think about its content, theme, organization, and use of poetic techniques. Then read student writer Stefano Giagregorio’s analysis.
I AM THE PEOPLE, THE MOB
By Carl Sandburg
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.
1/8
Response Essay
Identifying with the Masses
Beginning
The thesis statement (underlined) reveals the theme of the poem.
Middle
The middle supports the thesis statement with specific examples. Verse quotations of more than one line include slashes to show line breaks.
The writer shows how poetic techniques reveal a poem’s theme.
Ending
The ending restates the thesis and leaves the reader with something to think about. Carl Sandburg was a poet “of the people,” and his working-class background and socialist
Poem Analysis
Writing Guidelines
Subject: Poem
Form: Analysis
Purpose: To explore meaning
Audience: Instructor
Sample Poem
Read the poem below and think about its content, theme, organization, and use of poetic techniques. Then read student writer Stefano Giagregorio’s analysis.
I AM THE PEOPLE, THE MOB
By Carl Sandburg
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.
1/8
Response Essay
Identifying with the Masses
Beginning
The thesis statement (underlined) reveals the theme of the poem.
Middle
The middle supports the thesis statement with specific examples. Verse quotations of more than one line include slashes to show line breaks.
The writer shows how poetic techniques reveal a poem’s theme.
Ending
The ending restates the thesis and leaves the reader with something to think about. Carl Sandburg was a poet “of the people,” and his working-class background and socialist