Poem “This Land is Your Land”, written by Woody Duthrie Overview

The poem “This Land is Your Land”, written by Woody Duthrie, has most of the significant elements of what a perfect poem might need. The rhyming has been perfectly constructed in the poem which gives it a closed poetic form. There is a rhythmic flow within each stanza to make it flow smoothly and then, all stanzas have also been connected with a rhyme “This land was made for you and me.” Each stanza is of the same length, i.e. four lines also called quatrain.

The poem is focused on providing an overview of the American land. It takes the readers on a journey of the land and tells them about how different parts of America actually look like and why there is a need to be proud of the mother land. It gives out a message of patriotism and unity among Americans. Each line of the poem has a meaning that goes deep down the reader’s heart.

The repetition of the line “This land was made for you and me.” at the end of each stanza is important because this line emphasizes the message the poem wants to provide to the readers. The repetition is also an important ingredient to create rhyme in the poem and creates a sense of urgency to get the readers involved within the poem.

The poem has been written in a time different than now. Therefore, there are some difficulties in understanding some of the words which are not a part of the day to day life at present. For example, the word “steeple” in the line “In the shadow of the steeple I see people”. I think that we can relate steeple to modern day office buildings which will make a lot more sense.