Carl Sandburg’s “Laughing Corn” catches a late-summer cornfield in full, almost giddy ripeness. The speaker hears something grand and playful in the yellow corn, a “high majestic fooling” that happened yesterday and will happen again tomorrow. The ears seem to laugh as they swell and burst, full of white juice and dangling silk. There’s a sense of deep seasonal rhythm: wind, rain, sun, and corn all “talk things over together,” just as the farmer and his wife do in the white farmhouse. Even the loose green blind can wait until the husking is done. The speaker’s feeling is one of wonder and affection — he notices a small blackbird with a red shoulder whose name he never learned, which adds a hint of mystery. The mood is warm, abundant, and quietly joyful, as if the whole landscape shares in the harvest’s ripe, laughing energy.
Laughing Corn — Summary
There was a high majestic fooling Day before yesterday in the yellow corn. And day after to-morrow in the yellow corn There will be high majestic fooling.
The ears ripen in late summer And come on with a conquering laughter, Come on with a high and conquering laughter.
The long-tailed blackbirds are hoarse. One of the smaller blackbirds chitters on a stalk And a spot of red is on its shoulder And I never heard its name in my life.
Some of the ears are bursting. A white juice works inside. Cornsilk creeps in the end and dangles in the wind.
Always — I never knew it any other way — The wind and the corn talk things over together. And the rain and the corn and the sun and the corn Talk things over together.
Over the road is the farmhouse. The siding is white and a green blind is slung loose. It will not be fixed till the corn is husked. The farmer and his wife talk things over together.