Uploaded September 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 192 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Wherein the rich man gets his just desserts!
Sandburg writes: "The cold winter night, the falling snow, the poor girl outside looking in, the rich man, hard- hearted and comfortable, letting the girl outside freeze to death : these classic devices of melodrama are in Mag’s Song.
"Kentuckians and Tennesseans, who formed a considerable part of the early settlers of Iowa, probably brought this song to that state, where it was heard by Edwin Ford Piper. It seems to be part of a ballad of thirty or forty stanzas of human woe from the Appalachians.
"Of course, farther back, it traces to a broadside or a popular ballad in England or Scotland. By cutting out all but two verses of this piece, we have the substance of a small melodrama that delivers swiftly. It erects an immense stage, puts the two chief puppets through their actions, and keeps "in character" to the finale."
Day 192 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Wherein the rich man gets his just desserts!
Sandburg writes: "The cold winter night, the falling snow, the poor girl outside looking in, the rich man, hard- hearted and comfortable, letting the girl outside freeze to death : these classic devices of melodrama are in Mag’s Song.
"Kentuckians and Tennesseans, who formed a considerable part of the early settlers of Iowa, probably brought this song to that state, where it was heard by Edwin Ford Piper. It seems to be part of a ballad of thirty or forty stanzas of human woe from the Appalachians.
"Of course, farther back, it traces to a broadside or a popular ballad in England or Scotland. By cutting out all but two verses of this piece, we have the substance of a small melodrama that delivers swiftly. It erects an immense stage, puts the two chief puppets through their actions, and keeps "in character" to the finale."
