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.
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 grows, 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.
Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.
The lyrical form of this poem is unrhyming.
Napoleons implies the great military leaders such as Napoleon (Bonaparte) I, emperor of the French(1769-1821)Lincolns implies the great political leaders such as Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), 16th President of
United States.fleck means trace
