| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Cornhuskers. 1918. |
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| 37. Singing Nigger |
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| YOUR bony head, Jazbo, O dock walloper, | |
| Those grappling hooks, those wheelbarrow handlers, | |
| The dome and the wings of you, nigger, | |
| The red roof and the door of you, | |
| I know where your songs came from. | 5 |
| I know why God listens to your, “Walk All Over God’s Heaven.” | |
| I heard you shooting craps, “My baby’s going to have a new dress.” | |
| I heard you in the cinders, “I’m going to live anyhow until I die.” | |
| I saw five of you with a can of beer on a summer night and I listened to the five of you harmonizing six ways to sing, “Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield.” | |
| I went away asking where I come from. | 10 |
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