Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2021

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (/ˈɡʌθri/; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the most significant figures in American folk music.

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Thursday, July 22nd, 2021.
0:07.8	Today's poem is by an American, well, singer and songwriter, Woody Guthrie. He lived from 1912 to
0:14.4	1967 and was born in July of 1912, so July 14th was his birthday. So I wanted to, in his honor, share one of his songs.
0:24.2	Of course, it's one of America's most famous folk songs. You've heard it. This land is your land.
0:29.1	And this is a song that was written in 1940 by Woody Guthrie. It's, if you've heard it,
0:35.0	you've probably know the melody. You probably know many of the words.
0:39.0	And he wrote it in response to Irving Berlin's God Bless America. So since we just would have had,
0:44.7	what did he got through his birthday? I wanted to go ahead and read this as if it's a poem.
0:50.0	And then I wanted to give you some context for it because it's a pretty interesting story.
0:55.5	And if nothing else, hopefully that will at least be intriguing. So this is how this land as your
1:01.5	land goes. Again, I'm going to read it as a poem. I'm not going to sing it. Nobody needs to experience
1:05.5	that. And there's plenty of places that you can hear at song. But I wanted to just focus on some of the
1:09.9	lyrics as if it's a poem, since it is a poem, and then again, offer a little bit of context, a little bit of
1:15.9	history for this, for this song. This is how it goes. This land is your land, and this land is my
1:22.5	land. From California to the New York Island, from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters.
1:31.1	This land was made for you and me.
1:34.7	As I went walking that ribbon of highway, I saw above me that endless skyway, saw below me that golden valley.
1:43.1	This land was made for you and me. I roamed and rambled,
1:48.4	and I followed my footsteps to the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts. All around me a voice
1:54.9	was sounding. This land was made for you and me. When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling, and the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, the voice was chanting as the fog was lifting.
2:08.2	This land was made for you and me.
2:11.8	This land is your land, and this land is my land.
	...

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