Carl Sandburg's Impact On American People

Poetry is a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by use of distinctive style and rhythm. Poetry as a whole has had a huge impact on American people and the way some think about their lives today. Carl Sandburg is one of many American poets; his words have penetrated the minds of many people across the world. Carl was not only a poet. He began his work writing historical readings about a man that had a huge impact on his life, Abraham Lincoln. He also wrote many short stories in the children’s literature area.

Carl Sandburg was born on January 6, 1878 in a 3 room cottage in Galesburg Illinois, which is now maintained by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Carl worked from when he was

While attending a party brought on from work, Carl met Lilian Steichen, whom he later married in 1908. Because he became a married man, Sandburg needed to take up the responsibilities of supporting a family. So he moved back to Illinois with his new wife and took up journalism. He worked as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News covering labor issues and later writing his own feature. Carl was almost completely unknown to the literary world until in 1914 his poems were published in a nationally circulated poetry magazine. Two years later Sandburg’s book Chicago Poems was published and this brought him to a point in his career that would bring him international acclaim. He then began writing more poetry which later led to him writing a children’s book of fanciful tales, Rootabaga Stories. This book sparked his publisher into suggesting to Sandburg that he should write a children’s reading level biography of Abraham Lincoln. Carl took this into strong consideration and published not a children’s book, but a two volume biography for adults on Lincoln called, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, in 1926. After this he moved to his new home in Michigan where he devoted the next four years of his life to writing four more volumes about Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. The Sandburg’s then moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina. On July 22, 1967 Carl Sandburg died at his North Carolina home, his ashes were returned to his birthplace in Giles, Illinois. Ten years later Lilian Sandburg passed away, her ashes were placed next to Carl’s at the small Carl Sandburg Park underneath Remembrance Rock, a red granite