Carl Sandburg

Timesweep

Timesweep - meaning Summary

Dawn as Universal Longing

The speaker frames existence as being born at the world’s morning and then equates morning with a universal state of longing. Natural images (valleys, mountains, cornfields, seas) illustrate desire as both ordinary and vast. Morning becomes a metaphor for human appetite and hope: individual yearnings and collective needs are the same luminous beginning. The poem suggests shared origin and shared yearning as central to human life.

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I was born in the morning of the world, So I know how morning looks morning in the valley wanting, morning on a mountain wanting. Morning looks like people look, like a cornfield wanting corn, like a sea wanting ships. Tell me about any strong, beautiful wanting, And there is your morning, my morning, everybody's morning.

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