Includes indexes.

A collection of poems and lyrics from several songs provides a look at our country, from colonial times to the present.Come, ye thankful people, come -- The Gift Outright / Robert Frost -- The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers / Felicia Dorothea Hemans -- First Thanksgiving / Myra Cohn Livingston -- Circles / Carl Sandburg -- Come, Ye Thankful People, Come / George J. Elvey -- Ring! Oh, ring for liberty! -- Paul Revere's Ride / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -- Paul Revere Speaks / Myra Cohn Livingston -- John Hancock / Lee Bennett Hopkins -- Molly Pitcher / Laura E. Richards -- Independence Bell / Anonymous -- Washington / Inscription at Mount Vernon -- Home of the brave: The Star-Spangled Banner / Francis Scott Key -- Western Wagons / Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet -- Battle Won is Lost / Phil George -- Pioneers / Lillian M. Fisher -- Casey Jones / Anonymous -- The Railroad Cars Are Coming / Anonymous -- What's the Railroad / Henry David Thoreau -- Child of the Sun / Lillian M. Fisher -- From a Song of Joys / Walt Whitman -- John Henry / Anonymous -- The Erie Canal / Anonymous -- Marching on: Come Up From the Fields Father / Walt Whitman -- The Whipporwill Calls / Beverly McLoughland -- Harriet Tubman -- John Brown's Body / Henry Howard Brownell -- The Gettysburg Address / Abraham Lincoln -- The Loneliness of Lincoln / X. J. Kennedy -- O Captain! My Captain! / Walt Whitman -- Frederick Douglass / Langston Hughes -- From Song of Myself / Walt Whitman -- Barbara Frietchie / John Greenleaf Whittier -- The Battle Hymn of the Republic / Julia Ward Howe -- I hear America singing: The New Colossus / Emma Lazarus -- America, The Beautiful / Katherine Lee Bates -- I Hear America Singing / Walt Whitman -- Crazy Boys / Beverly McLoughland -- Flying-Man / Mother Goose -- Nat Love: Black Cowboy / Lee Bennett Hopkins -- When Johnny comes marching home--again: There is a Power in a Union / Attributed to Joe Hill -- When Johnny Comes Marching Home / Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore -- The Bean Eaters / Gwendolyn Brooks -- What Shall We Do for the Striking Seamen? / Traditional -- Soup / Carl Sandburg -- Madam's Past History / Langston Hughes -- Young Woman at a Window / William Carlos Williams -- From the People, Yes / Carl Sandburg -- Depression / Isabel Joshlin Glaser -- Mail King / Paul Janeczko -- The Last Good War--and Afterward / Isabel Joshlin Glaser -- From Trail Breakers / James Daugherty -- Riding to and from: Illinois Farmer / Carl Sandburg -- Double Features / Ed Rossman -- Living in Cheston / Cynthia Rylant -- Good Times / Lucille Clifton -- Subways are People / Lee Bennett Hopkins -- Commuter / E. B. White -- From Skyscraper / Carl Sandburg -- Farmer / Prince Redcloud -- Bugs / Anonymous -- Building a New Church / Anonymous -- Un-American Investigators / Langston Hughes -- Come with dreams: The World is a Beautiful Place / Lawrence Ferlinghetti -- Arthur Thinks on Kennedy / Mrya Cohn Livingston -- Martin Luther King / Aileen Fisher -- We Shall Overcome / Anonymous -- en-vi-RON-ment / Lee Bennett Hopkins -- Vietnam / Clarence Major -- We Real Cool / Gwendolyn Brooks -- Enemies / Charlotte Zolotow -- Thought / Walt Whitman -- Manhattan Lullaby / Rachel Field -- Voyaging: Midnight Vigil / Fran Haraway -- From a Page of Short Poems / Eugene McCarthy -- Post Early for Space / Peter J. Henniker-Heaton -- From the People, Yes / Carl Sandburg -- From U.S.A. / Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet -- From America / Samuel Francis Smith.