Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."
Biography
Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, to parents of Swedish ancestry. At the age of thirteen (During Eighth grade) he left school and began driving a milk wagon. From the age of about fourteen until he was seventeen or eighteen, he worked as a porter at the Union Hotel barbershop in Galesburg. After that he was on the milk route again for 18 months. He then became a bricklayer and a farm laborer on the wheat plains of Kansas. After an interval spent at Lom ...
i love sandburg's works, especially that use the wor 'moon'..wish me luck b'coz i wanna write my undergraduate thesis about the meaning of sandburg's works that use the word 'moon'...
I think postmodern poetry owes Sandburg, as he was the first to describe machinery life, he expanded the range of words in poetry & he tried to add some new concepts, we have to reread Sandburg to go forward...
What can I say? Carl Sandburg is truly a master. His ability to celebrate the beauty and greatness in all things common, is unmatched. And since the publication of 'Chicago Poems' in 1916, the voice of modern poetry has never been the same.
It is a pity that the academic elite these days do not hold Carl Sandburg in very high esteem compared to Stevens or Elliot or even John Ashbury in instances.
looking for the Sandburg poem, " now we shall open boxes and look..." - anyone have the reference?
Carl Sandburg mastered both poetry and prose, something to do with him being a journalist. I find him very readable.
Thanks for your agreement Chuck. Not often someone agrees with me.
I must agree with Michael Walker: Sandburg is still underrated. I fell in love with Sandberg at 17 when my dad recited the first stanza of Chicago to me from memory. He had memorized it about 30 years earlier in high school. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his 3 volume biography about Abraham Lincoln. The beauty of his prose, in my opinion, is how the poet shows through on every page. His skill in using just the right word to express his ideas was beyond brilliant.
I think that Carl Sandburg is still underrated, compared to other American poets. His thoughts roam freely, impelled by a vivid imagination. In such a large number of poems, some are much better than others, as you would expect.
Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.
Ordering a man to write a poem is like commanding a pregnant woman to give birth to a red-headed child.
The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.
Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.
The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.
Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
When I listen to a politician trumpet proud words I wonder, if hidden by the lectern, are polished wingtips or long, hard boots.