The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done

by


The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done is one of Woody Guthrie's songs in the public domain, published in 1946.
An illustration for the story The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done by the author Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie Songbook, 1946
An illustration for the story The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done by the author Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie Songbook, 1946
An illustration for the story The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done by the author Woody Guthrie
I'm just a lonesome traveler the great historical bum
I'm highly educated from history I have come
I built the rock of ages that was the year of one
And that was about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Woody
I worked the Garden of Eden 'twas in the year of two
Joined the apple picker's union and always paid my due
I'm the man that signed the contract to raise the rising sun
And that was about the biggest thing that man had ever done.

I was straw boss on the pyramids and tower of babel too
I opened up the ocean let the migrant children through
I fought a million battles and I never lost a one
That's about the biggest thing that man had ever done.

I beat the daring Roman and I beat the daring Turk
Defeated Nero's army with thirty minutes work
I met the greatest leaders and licked them every one
That was about the greatest that man had ever done.

I was in the revolution when we set the country free
Me and a couple of Indians that dumped the Boston tea
Won the Battle at Valley Forge and Battle of Bully Run
And that's about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

There's a man across the ocean and I guess you know him well
His name is Adolph Hitler and I'll burn his soul in hell
I kicked him in his panzers and I put him on the run
And that's about the biggest thing that man has ever done.

There's warehouse guys and teamsters and gus that skin the cats
Women that run the big mill the furnace and the blast
We'll stop these axis rattlesnakes and thieves of old Nippon
And this will be the biggest thing that man has ever done.

There mines and mills and factories that run for this big land
Backed up the service men that fight on every hand
The job is awful tough and will take us every one
But this will be the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Woody
Well I better quit my talking 'cause I told you all I know
But please remember pardner wherever you may go
The world is digging slavery's grave and when the job is done
This'll be the biggest thing that man has ever done.
____

This world is your world, take it easy, but take it.

Featured in our collection of Poetry for Students


8

facebook share button twitter share button google plus share button tumblr share button reddit share button email share button share on pinterest pinterest


Create a library and add your favorite stories. Get started by clicking the "Add" button.
Add The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done to your own personal library.

Return to the Woody Guthrie Home Page, or . . . Read the next poem; This Land Is Your Land

Anton Chekhov
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Susan Glaspell
Mark Twain
Edgar Allan Poe
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Herman Melville
Stephen Leacock
Kate Chopin
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson