Carl Sandburg And Ezra Pound

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Recommended: Sandburg, Carl. Modern American Poetry

The beauty of the English language is that there is a word for all situations. Poets, Carl Sandburg and Ezra Pound were master wordsmiths. Pound tries to mesh the magnificence of nature with the metronomic rhythm of an underground rail-system in his poem “In a Station of the Metro”. Sandburg also attempts to unite nature and the cityscape. The pulse of Sandburg’s “Fog” plays out similar to Planet Earth. Unlike Planet Earth, which has hours of narrative explaining the grandeur of earth; “Fog” is able to mesh the city and nature in just six lines. Pound interlaces the urban landscape and nature as if he were mixing oil and vinegar. Pound pours nature into the city, but when you leave both at rest you can clearly see which is heavier. Sandburg is also mixing two metaphorical fluids, but his two liquids are Columbian dark roast coffee and non-dairy creamer. His words, just like coffee and creamer blend slowly until you cannot differentiate the difference between the two. Ezra Pound’s word choice is stunning, but he is unable to interlock the city with nature as well as Carl Sandburg does.
When arriving at the station of Pound’s poem we are already underground and isolated from nature. We start the poem with “The apparition of these faces in the crowd” (line 1). The speaker is clearly watching the train cars rapidity enter the station. Only slowing down fast enough to pick-up passengers, like trash being taken onto a garbage truck. The train’s passengers appear as apparitions, quick to fade in and just as quick to go.

The underground transit system is a complete separation form nature, no natural light dare travel down there. There is beauty in watching a train move through the untouched wilderness. The beauty, in part is the train...

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...fog comes in without bothering anyone and leaves in the same manner.
The unity of nature and the city is a difficult thing to merge together. Although Pound made a valiant effort in trying to combine the two were in vain. Pound took the city underground and in turn was missing out on all the wonders that were just a couple feet above. Man tried to separate himself from force of the natural world, but no matter how much concrete was placed on the walls life would still find a way to grow. Sandburg on the other hand beautifully mixed nature and the city like coffee and creamer. The fog would slowly drift over the city like a pet cat slowly walking across the living room. They both happen without warning, but we accept it and embrace the beauty. The unity between nature and the industrialized world in “Fog” is superior at interlocking the two units with such elegance.

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