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This Land Is Your Land is a poem written by Woodrow Wilson


This Land Is Your Land is a poem written by Woodrow Wilson Woody Guthrie in February of 1940 in April of 1944 it was eventually set to music and turned into a song On the first reading of this poem especially when one takes into account the song that was learned in childhood it has a very patriotic feel to it This land is your land this land is my land this land was made for you and me Guthrie 1 1 1 4 Upon closer inspection when the last three stanzas of the poem are taken into account we see that this is not the case at all and different meaning comes to light The song that everyone knows today is somewhat different than the original poem that was written by Guthrie why is this To get a better understanding of Guthrie s poem you have to get a better understanding of what was going on in the world during the time the poem was written and who Woody Guthrie was as a person what was the inspiration behind the poem and how the poem became the song that we all know today Woody Guthrie was an American folk singer and songwriter He has authored many songs and poems including This Land Is Your Land Matthew Blake an assistant professor ibn the Journalism Department of California State University states that Guthrie considered himself to be a dust bowl refugee when he moved to California in the 1930 s 184 



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