Carl Sandburg's Poetry

Carl Sandburg has shown his emotions throughout his life. He has been through some rough and bitter times in his life but yet he has been happy at periods of times. Carl Sandburg’s life clearly influenced his poetry as evidence by “Fog”, “Honey and salt”, and “Chicago”.
In Sandburg’s earlier poems, such as “Fog”, he shows the darkness of the world. This is as evidence by one of the many critics to this poems, “stubbornness to a storm of protest” (Untermeyer). Here, Untermeyer talks about what Sandburg’s main message/theme in this poem. Sandburg shows protest of society. Example, “The fog comes on little cat feet… over the harbor and city…” (Sandburg). Sandburg talks about the darkness about the city and the reality of some parts of

“‘Honey and Salt’ (1963)... Here the mellowness and wisdom of age are evident,...” (Golden). In a number of poems, such as “timesweep”, he shows wisdom and just pure happiness. He starts admiring things around him years later after he wrote many poems such as “Fog”. The poem “Timesweep”, is a prime example, “Tell me about any strong, beautiful wanting, and there is your morning, my morning, everybody’s morning” (Sandburg). Sandburg admires the scenery around him and life itself. He shows positivity by saying “..and there is your morning, my morning, everybody’s morning.” This shows that he is purely happy while writing this poem and is enjoying life. “...poems focus on love and alienation (and evanescence), compassion and indifference, identity and the impersonality of number,...” (Crowder). Here the critic is focusing on what Carl Sandburg loves and accepting others saying “...compassion and indifference, identity and the impersonality of number,..”. He points out the differences in cultures and societies yet admires everything about the diversity not only in the United States but the world. This quote is supported by Sandburg, “So I know how looks, morning in the valley wanting, morning on a mountain wanting, morning looks like people look, like a cornfield wanting corn;...” (Sandburg). Carl Sandburg talks about all different people having goals and trying

Carl Sandburg chooses to point out the bad yet looks on the bright side of things. “Throughout the book, the poet is strangely like his city. There is the mixture of a gigantic, youthful personality and an older alien will to mount” (Untermeyer). This quote says that Carl Sandburg has been more wise in his later poems especially in “Chicago”. He has been more positive looking at the darkness i parts of the world. “On the faces of the women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger...Come and show me another with lifted heading singing so proud to be alive…” (Sandburg). Here in the poems, he points out the dark reality of families in cities that are most likely in poverty by saying “I have the marks of wanton hunger…”, but then he says “Come and show me another with lifted heading singing so proud to be alive.” He is admiring the city of Chicago saying that when everyone comes together as one, there is no other city stronger than them and has a bigger heart. This shows the progression of Carl Sandburg because in his earlier work he would only focus on how the families would struggle and how their lives would be so bad. Though Carl Sandburg switches to the positivity about these families and how happy and strong they are. “Not only does Sandburg write about city of Chicago as a vibrant relentlessly active, innately immoral place of embodied contradictions,