Carl Sandburg

Theme in Yellow

Theme in Yellow - context Summary

Halloween Gathering and Disguise

Set at Halloween, the poem adopts the voice of the pumpkin/jack-o'-lantern describing its seasonal shift from fields to an autumnal icon. It traces how yellow hills and cornfields become ‘‘pumpkins’’ and culminates in October dusk when children circle, sing ghost songs, and make a jack-o'-lantern with "terrible teeth." The children recognize the harmless trick: the poem links harvest imagery to playful, ritualized disguise.

Read Complete Analyses

I SPOT the hills With yellow balls in autumn. I light the prairie cornfields Orange and tawny gold clusters And I am called pumpkins. On the last of October When dusk is fallen Children join hands And circle round me Singing ghost songs And love to the harvest moon; I am a jack-o'-lantern With terrible teeth And the children know I am fooling.

default user
PoetryVerse just now

Feel free to be first to leave comment.

8/2200 - 0