Carl Sandburg's Life

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Analysis of the Life and Works of American poet: Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was born and raised in Galesburg, Illinois to Swedish immigrants August and Clara Anderson Sandburg. His father August was a blacksmith’s assistant on the Burlington and Quincy Railroad in Chicago. Carl Sandburg was the second of seven children in a small three-room cottage, typical for 19th century working-class. Shortly after Sandburg’s birth, the family moved to a larger house in Galesburg.
Sandburg quit school after the eighth grade and spent the next ten years of his life working in every way imaginable. Whether it was delivering milk, shining shoes, laying bricks, or hitchhiking across America, Sandburg allowed these experiences to manifest in him strong political views that the world would come to see in his writings. He came to dislike capitalism in the way that it divided and highlighted the differences between the rich and the poor. (Barr)
The 1898 Spanish-American War found twenty year old Carl Sandburg in Puerto Rico, volunteering for the sake of his country. Later that year he enrolled in Lombard College in his home town of Galesburg. Sandburg’s college experience shaped his rich literary talents. During his studies at Lombard, …show more content…

He wasn't interested in using long fancy words or writing in intricate rhyme formats that only a few would comprehend. His most popular subject was the American people, predominantly the working class and the culture and struggles attached to them. In a time of great economic growth, Sandburg focused on the American workers making that growth possible. World War I was in full swing and Sandburg expressed the effect it had on the American people. Sandburg documented the world in which he lived, he was so good in writing about the American experience because he played a large part in it. Strong examples of this are two of his poems Chicago (1916) and Grass

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