Chicago:
The Legacy of Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg may be one of our most influential poets in American history, he knew the American working man and his necessities. Sandburg used his poetry to explicate to the economy how life is, can, and could be. Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois January 6, 1878 to Swedish immigrant parents with the names of August and Clara Johnson. His family was extremely poor. Carl left school at the age of thirteen to work odd jobs from bricklaying to dish washing to earn money to support the family. At seventeen, he left home to travel to Kansas as a hobo, there he turned to the army for help. He served eight months in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American war.
After the war, Carl attended Lombard College in his hometown. There he was recognized by what may have been the most important person in Sandburg’s life. He met Professor Philip Green Wright.
Proffessor Wright paid for the publication of Carl Sandburg’s first volume of poetry, a small pamphlet called Reckless Ecstasy in 1904.
Carl Sandburg was not known to the literary world until the age of thirty-six. In 1914, he won a prize for a group of poems including the now famous "Chicago". Two years later, he published the volume "Chicago Poems", and with five more volumes of his poetry, "Corn Huskers", "Smoke and Steel", "Slabs of the Sunburnt West", "Good Morning America", and "The People Yes" were gathered together in "Complete Poems", and were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1951. Sandburg is also the author of the children’s classic "Rootabaga Stories", a collection of folk songs, "The American Songbag", a novel called Remembrance Rock, an autobiography named Always the Young Strangers , and a six volume biography of Abraham Lincoln the last four volumes of which received the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1940.
Carl Sandburg’s technique used in all of his work is free verse celebrating industrial and agricultural era in America. He uses long free-flowing lines which follow a simple straight forward text. His use of free verse reflects on how he feels about the common people and their surroundings at the turning point of the era. Arch...
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...e of himself to help the others cope with the pressure that has been applied by the thumb of America.
"Chicago" is the typical use of Carl Sandburg’s Free Verse. This is because of the simple use of words and punctuation. It allows for any person to read and comprehend what he must say. It is shown in the poem "The Grass" he illustrates how grass is like war, it is everywhere and no matter where it is it doen’t change it will still be war. The tone of "The Grass" is written in Free Verse. It not only allows you to apply the the entirity of war but allows you to observe that no matter where it is it is the same. This poem also shows part of Sandburg’s life. As he worked as a teen he did it for the sole purpose of providing for his family. No matter where he worked it was still for the same reason to provide.
Carl Sandburg was probably one of the most influential characters of his time and of ours today. He is a very down to earth person who understands the needs and wants of the American working man. If not for Carl Sandburg many people may have been left with an empty mind and an empty heart.
When he returned from the army he got enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He received M.A. degree and began to work on his Ph.D. at the same time he started teaching at University of Minnesota and later at MacAlester College. He received Ph.D. from University of Washington for study on Charles Dickens and he did public readings. He taught at Hunter College in New York City from 1966 to 1980. He also worked as translator. He completed some of his poems as he was teaching in the college he states that he didn’t feel any conflict between the duties of teaching and the labors of writing books which are non-academic.
In the United States there are many highly populated, big cities that exist. They not only serve as purpose for business and industry, but also serve as homes for many people. Chicago, the third highest populated city in the United States, can be defined in several different ways. Carl Sandburg a fan and native of Chicago describes the city. Sandburg describes the city in different ways with his poems “Chicago” and “Skyscraper.” Both poems portray the city as lively and dominant, but the poem "Skyscraper" acknowledges drawbacks of the city.
Think of the most beautiful city in world. You are walking the streets, taking in the scenery in complete admiration of a city built by men. Then one day you go to sleep, a few hours later you awaken, and that beautiful city is completely destroyed. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history (“The Great Chicago”). After many failed attempts to put out the fire, people were left homeless and helpless to rebuild their city. Thankfully, after every tragedy there is always a recovery.
The setting of the story is Chicago’s South Side. This area of Chicago was known as the “capital of black America” (Manning), and according to Andrew Wiese, Chicago used to be known as “the most segregated city in America” (118). These seriously contradictory statements are true. Chicago’s South Side was home to William L. Dawson, who was the most powerful black politician at the time, and Joe Luis, who was a boxing champion and was known as the most popular black man in America (Manning). It was the most popular place for blacks to migrate to during the Great Migration, and the population grew from 278,000 blacks to 813,000 blacks. Most of the neighborhoods located in the South Side were poor and highly segregated from the rich white neighborhoods located just outside the South Side (Pacyga). The housing in these areas was very poor as well. Most of the African Americans at the time lived in a small apartment called a kitchenette. These were cramped with a small kitchen and small rooms (Plotkin). Lorraine Hansberry describes the Youngers house as a worn out, cramped, and very small apartment (23). She also talks about the small kitchen, living room, and bedrooms (24). These apartments were not ideal, but it was all that many African Americans could afford. If African Americans tried to move nicer neighborhoods, whites would perform violent acts on them (Choldin). This violence was recorded in a African American newspaper, known the Chicago Defender (Best).
Jarrell, Randall. ?Fifty Years of American Poetry.? The Third Book of Criticism. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Writing, Thinking. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, 1999. 1865-190
He basically creates a personal story that creates the public imagination, which is why his work is smiled upon. As Sandburg traveled, his ideas and beliefs evolved. Which sometimes gave his poems the push they needed. He had an unflinching documentary eye. Sandburg’s work is an eyebrow raiser, and is also encouraged. He aims towards the cadence of everyday association and talk as a base and model for his poems. He uses his free-going mind to acknowledge a world beyond America, one where things are different through his poetry. His many activities are one of the qualities that make him so interesting. Sandburg is the voice for America , and also its strengths and geniuses.
Jones employs the dynamics of change to his speaker throughout the poem. From an aimless vagrant to a passionate revolutionary, Jones plots his speaker's course using specific words and structural techniques. Through these elements, we witness the evolution of a new black man--one who is not content with the passivity of his earlier spiritual leaders. We are left with a threat--a steel fist in a velvet glove of poetry--and it becomes a poem that we "have to" understand, whether we want to or not.
...he Industrial revolution and the crisis of poverty. As I read the poem for the first time I attempted to recall those feelings as I was noticing the different literature terms used in the poem. These words to some are just words, to others though they are inspirational and life-changing words that will live forever, but what is ironic is that Sandburg had no idea if his works would be anything more than words on paper.
Wheatley’s first poem was published in a Rhode Island newspaper in 1767. Poems on Various Subjects consisted of thirty-eight poems written by Wheatley, and it could be found in London in 1773. Wheatley died on December 5, 1784.*
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Allen, Donald, ed. The New American Poetry 1945-1960. Berkely, CA.: U. of California P., 1999.
Carl Sandburg has been captivating reader’s attention since his first published poem in 1920’s(Baym 763). Sandburg understood the powerful use that literary devices play in literary works. He was known for using these devices to connect with readers, and implementing deeper themes into his works. He is one of the most famous poets for using these techniques. Nina Baym wrote that “Sandburg believed that the people themselves, rather than a cadre of intellectuals acting on behalf of the people, would ultimately shape their own destiny”(763). He shaped his literary work so people of all demographics could relate, and embedded different unique perspectives with literary device for people who