This Land Is Your Land - Original 1940 Lyrics

Original 1940 Lyrics

Following are the original lyrics as composed on February 23, 1940, in Guthrie's room at the Hanover House hotel at 43rd St. and 6th Ave. (101 West 43rd St.) in New York, showing his strikeouts. The line "This land was made for you and me" does not literally appear in the manuscript at the end of each verse, but is implied by Guthrie's writing of those words at the top of the page and by his subsequent singing of the line with those words.

The original title was "God Blessed America", but it was struck out and replaced by "This Land Was Made For You & Me. It appears therefore that the original 1940 title was "This Land".

This land is your land, this land is my land

From the California to the Staten New York Island,

From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,

God blessed America for me.

As I went walking that ribbon of highway

And saw above me that endless skyway,

And saw below me the golden valley, I said:

God blessed America for me.

I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,

And all around me, a voice was sounding:

God blessed America for me.

Was a high wall there that tried to stop me

A sign was painted said: Private Property,

But on the back side it didn't say nothing —

God blessed America for me.

When the sun come shining, then I was strolling

In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;

The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting:

God blessed America for me.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple

By the Relief Office I saw my people —

As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if

God blessed America for me.

According to Joe Klein, after Guthrie composed it "he completely forgot about the song, and didn't do anything with it for another five years." (Since there is a March, 1944, recording of the song, Klein should have said "four years".)