How Much? — Summary

In Carl Sandburg’s short dialogue, one voice asks how much the other loves them—“a million bushels?”—and the answer is both generous and unsettling: today, more than that; tomorrow, maybe not even half. The question that follows, “And is this your heart arithmetic?”, gets a quiet reply: “This is the way the wind measures the weather.” The answer sounds almost contradictory—a lot more, then almost nothing—and that whiplash is the point. Using bushels, a farm measure, makes love sound like a crop to be weighed, but the final image refuses any fixed number. The speaker feels the strange, honest ache of that truth: affection can be enormous now and nearly gone later, not out of cruelty, but because feelings move like wind. The mood is wry, tender, and slightly melancholy, capturing both playfulness and the quiet uncertainty running beneath a love that cannot promise a steady measure.