Laughing Corn
Laughing Corn - context Summary
Published in 1918
Published in Sandburg’s 1918 collection Cornhuskers, "Laughing Corn" presents a rural harvest scene that registers as an elemental chorus: corn, wind, rain, sun and birds are active participants while a farmhouse and its occupants wait and act in seasonal time. The poem reflects Sandburg’s interest in Midwestern common life, using plain, declarative images to make the field’s ripening and communal rhythms the central subject.
Read Complete AnalysesThere was a high majestic fooling Day before yesterday in the yellow corn. And day after to-morrow in the yellow corn There will be high majestic fooling. The ears ripen in late summer And come on with a conquering laughter, Come on with a high and conquering laughter. The long-tailed blackbirds are hoarse. One of the smaller blackbirds chitters on a stalk And a spot of red is on its shoulder And I never heard its name in my life. Some of the ears are bursting. A white juice works inside. Cornsilk creeps in the end and dangles in the wind. Always--I never knew it any other way-- The wind and the corn talk things over together. And the rain and the corn and the sun and the corn Talk things over together. Over the road is the farmhouse. The siding is white and a green blind is slung loose. It will not be fixed till the corn is husked. The farmer and his wife talk things over together.
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