A Song About Borders

This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property.
But on the back side it didn't say nothing--
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
A voice was chanting, as the fog was lifting :
This land was made for you and me.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there wondering
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.


"The anthem of unity and beauty which so many children learned in school was actually written in response to the equally reverenced 'God Bless America'. As mentioned in the biography, Woody was infuriated with the lack of realism and the message of complacency in this song which infiltrated the nation's air waves. In response, he wrote 'God Blessed America For Me' which later became 'This Land Is Your Land.'

Of the original, at least two stanzas are left out of the song as it is now sung. They are essentially Marxist and turn the celebratory anthem into an ironic attack on mainstream American Capitalist society. In the fourth stanza, the high wall and private property sign keep people out of a part of their country which is supposed to belong to all. This symbolizes the injustices of capitalism. In the sixth stanza, the line at the Relief Office symbolizes the inefficiency of capitalism in its failure to support the people in the most fundamental way. That the line is in the shadow of the steeple on a bright sunny morning suggests, perhaps, that the church is also a failed and unjust institution. Or, perhaps the church's presence next to the Relief Office is meant to emphasize the failure of the New Deal government , in contrast to the tradition of church, religion, and morality. The size, diversity, and beauty of the nation's landscape become tragic and ironic along side the accounts of poverty, homelessness, and the cruelty and failures of capitalism. Ultimately, the value and virtue of the nation, symbolized by its geography, the value and virtue of Americans, of the government, and of God himself are called into question as the persona of the song asks, as though implying a negative response, if God really had blessed America for him."
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/RADIO/woody/ah.html