Carl Sandburg

(6 January 1878 – 22 July 1967 / Illinois)

poet Carl Sandburg
#50 on top 500 poets
Carl Sandburg
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Carl Sandburg Poems

  • Fog  The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking
  • Arithmetic  Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in ...
  • Chicago  Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of ...
  • Autumn Movement  I cried over beautiful things knowing no ...
  • At A Window  Give me hunger, O you gods that sit and give ...
  • Among The Red Guns  Among the red guns, In the hearts of ...
  • Grass  Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. ...
All poems of Carl Sandburg »


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... more »

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Quotations

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  • ''Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.''
    Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), U.S. poet. New York Times (Feb. 13, 1959).
    245 person liked.
    		63 person did not like.
  • ''Ordering a man to write a poem is like commanding a pregnant woman to give birth to a red-headed child.''
    Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), U.S. poet. Quoted in The Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, New York, February, 1978).
    181 person liked.
    		82 person did not like.
  • ''The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.''
    Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), U.S. poet. The People, Yes (l. 7). . . Oxford Book of American Verse, The. F. O. Matthiessen, ed. (1950) Oxford Univers...
    126 person liked.
    		81 person did not like.
  • ''Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.''
    Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), U.S. poet. The People, Yes (1936). The words were popularized during the anti-war protests of the 1960s, and were echoe...
    189 person liked.
    		52 person did not like.
  • ''The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.''
    Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), U.S. poet. Two Nocturnes.
    156 person liked.
    		55 person did not like.
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Comments about Carl Sandburg

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  • gavin (10/17/2018 10:24:00 AM)

    great poet i think he is pretty cool

    0 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • klaine (4/19/2018 10:58:00 AM)

    does he have any funny poems

    4 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.
  • Madison’s (3/2/2018 5:56:00 PM)

    I like the fog one and it has a message behind it you just have to figure it out.i love poems like

    5 person liked.
    		8 person did not like.
  • cole bob oese (1/26/2018 3:45:00 PM)

    cool bob h m h gb f v

    9 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
  • sasmitarani nayak (11/10/2017 9:36:00 PM)

    very nice poem

    10 person liked.
    		10 person did not like.
  • Mehmet Ceran (11/10/2017 2:18:00 AM)

    iyi adamdı kendisi Allah rahmet eylesin

    6 person liked.
    		15 person did not like.
  • Kaycee Terpening (11/9/2017 11:02:00 AM)

    i like the alone it creative

    8 person liked.
    		13 person did not like.
  • Greg Bell Greg Bell (4/16/2017 4:51:00 PM)

    These days, Sandburg is an undervalued poet. I once spent many an hour listening to old records of him reciting his work. If you ever get the chance, listen to his 'Rutabaga Stories.' Pure magic.

    22 person liked.
    		9 person did not like.
  • Raymond Farrell (12/3/2015 6:33:00 AM)

    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.

    33 person liked.
    		22 person did not like.
  • Barry Gross (3/2/2012 3:15:00 PM)

    When I listen to a politician trumpet proud words
    I wonder, if hidden by the lectern, are
    polished wingtips or long, hard boots.

    195 person liked.
    		147 person did not like.
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Best Poem of Carl Sandburg

Fog

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Read the full of Fog
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