Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part 1: The World's Columbian Exposition; Part 2: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)

Sorry for this lengthy attempt at some meaning.

The two parts of this song for me seem to explore the tension between art and commerce. The first, by examining the 1893 World's Fair, questions whether we have progressed through our creations or actually taken steps back due to our obsessions with consumption. The second part becomes more introspective, as previous posters have mentioned, by looking at artists themselves and how they fit.

For a little background, the World's Fair of 1893 was very influential on American consumerism. The fair was a look back at the 400 years since Columbus's voyage to the New World, and it attempted to show just how far we've come. By imitating the architectural style in Europe, it created the White City, which tried to show Americans that the U.S. could compete with Europe on a cultural level while at the same time celebrate us as a leader in technology and education. It literally was a grand imitation of high style European cities that was meant to be a contrast to the slowly declining American cities with their crime, poverty and violence. The Fair offered scholarly exhibits with great thinkers and educators of the time (Dewey, for instance), but Americans who visited (over 27 million) were more impressed with the Midway, an amusement park with Ferris Wheels, international singers and performers and new products such as Cream of Wheat, Pabst beer, Aunt Jemima syrup and soft drinks. In a sense, the fair ushered in the idea that enjoying oneself was done through the consumption of material goods. Everything in today's culture, from the power of advertising to Disney to amusement parks, can easily be traced back to the World's Columbian Exposition.

In the song, Sufjan mentions in the first line having some motivation to comment on society but when he spots the advertising, he is taken over by it. In the next line, the speaker is calling for, in the midst of great confusion and anxiety, entrepreneurs to lead us to the promised line.

In the next set of lines, to me, he seems to be asking, "Can't our dialogue with each other better connect us rather than advertising and products?" It emphasizes the question by urging us to think on our own ("put it to your head")

In the next set of lines, he specifically refers to products introduced at the fair but then points out in the lines beginning with "Oh Great Intentions.." that these advertisers seem to have no conscience about the ramifications of the kinds of images they create. "Have you degraded us" the speaker asks. Again, the speaker is thinking hard about what image is presented and what consumerism has done.

The reference to Frank Lloyd Wright drives home the point, because his creations were independent of the mainstream architects of his time, that we've forgotten that the true sign of progress is our ability to think on our own and we should constantly work to advance our current thinking not imitate what's already been done.

In Part II, the speaker moves to his own art, mainly his writing, and through his visit with Sandburg, begins to think about how his art should come from his heart, not from what's already been done.

I also agree with previous posters that Sandburg is saying that even if you're intentions depict a dark and terrible world, are you staying true to what's inside of you?

The two parts try to show how all of us need to look within ourselves and think on our own, rather than try to be taken by the loads of advertising and products that come our way.