Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois on January 6, 1878. He was the son of Swedish immigrants. He grew up in the fields of Illinois. After the age of thirteen, he dropped out of school and became a day laborer. His numerous odd jobs helped him gain experience as a writer and poet. He then served in Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American war. After the war, he practically forced himself through Lombard College, now known as Knox College. In 1908, he married Lilian Steichen and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They had three children together. In 1913, he moved to Chicago, where he wrote his first famous poem. Some of the odd jobs he had then were novelist, journalist, children's author, and film critic. He toured the country, not just reading his poems, but also playing the guitar and singing folk songs.

    His fame as a historian began when he wrote his great six volume biography on Abraham Lincoln. He believed that previous biographies had idealized Lincoln too much. For these he received the Pulitzer Prize. He collected his favorite songs in The American Songbag. He also created countless more novels and poems throughout his lifetime. His collected letters were published in 1968. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received it’s gold medal for history in 1952 and later poetry in 1953. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. This great novelist and poet died on July 22, 1967.

    Carl Sandburg's work was famous for it's vigor and style, which was strictly free verse. Much of his work also included alot of imagery, and you could picture what he was trying to say. When he wrote editorials for the Chicago Daily News, he also completed Cornhuskers, Smoke and Steel, and Good Morning, America. All of his books also expressed an optimism for the United States, which was greatly appreciated. He wrote many poems about his city, Chicago, and one of those made him famous. He enjoyed American themes the most. Some of his other works include: Steichen the Photographer, Home Front Memo, a novel called Remembrance Rock, a treasury of his poetry appropriately named Complete Poems which won a Pulitzer Prize, his autobiography Always the Young Strangers, and his children's book Rootabaga Stories. He was commonly influenced by his experiences as a farmer and city dweller. One poem of his I particularly liked was as follows:

Pearl Cobwebs

Pearl cobwebs in the windy rain,
in only a flicker of wind,
are caught and lost and never known again.

A pool of moonshine comes and waits,
but never waits long; the wind picks up,
loose gold like this and is gone.

A bar of steel sleeps and looks slant-eyed
on the pearl cobwebs, the pools of moonshine;
sleeps slant- eyed a million years,
sleeps with a coat of rust, a vest of moths,
a shirt of gathering sod and loam.

The wind never bothers. . . a bar of steel.
The wind picks only. . . pearl cobwebs. . .
    pools of moonshine.

    There were many different poetry techniques Carl Sandburg used in this particular poem. As it is free verse, there is no rhyme scheme, but parts of it have a queer rhythm to it. For example: "looks slant eyed" and "pools of moonshine" almost rhymes. The last two lines in particular gives it a slow, quiet mood. I believe it is the periods in particular that make it slow and give it a slow, ancient mood. The phrase "pools of moonshine" has assonance with the long o's. When I read this poem, it gave me a sort of mysterious feel. Cobwebs and moonshine and wind give it a magic air, and the moonshine in particular makes it almost black magic. An obvious technique that he commonly used is personification, in this poem in "the wind never bothers" and "steel sleeps slant-eyed". With that line comes another poetic method: alliteration. That phrase, in fact, is a near tongue- twister. There are also many s's and w's, almost implying it should be read in a whisper. The poem is in third person. Carl Sandburg actually did many first AND third person poems, I believe. Carl Sandburg had much experience with cities, and I can almost imagine myself on a street corner at midnight looking at what he describes. The reason I say city street corner at midnight, I myself do not know. Perhaps it is because a bar of steel would not be found in the country, and next to a street curb is the most sheltered place in a city. Perhaps it is because I can visualize golden pools best on a gray concrete street with a streetlight shining on it. I do not know. But I do know that I love the way this poem makes me feel. Perhaps he wrote it because he actually saw a bar of steel on the street, with cobwebs that were once attached to it being blown away. Maybe it was raining and a streetlight was shining on the water just right to give it a golden glow. Maybe he just made it up out of his head! Who knows? Finally, I also saw a metaphor when he re-describes his pools of moonshine as loose gold. Of the numerous poems I read, this is my favorite. But I also enjoyed the ones that follow:

  • Laughing Corn
  • Bug Spots
  • Spring Grass
  • People of the Eaves
  • Early Moon
  • River Roads
  • Sunset From Omaha Window
  • Three Pieces on the Smoke of Autumn
  • Illinois Farmer
    The important thing to remember about this poet is his loyalty to his country, which was expressed in his work. Carl Sandburg was, and still is, truly the author of America.

Researched and written by Katrina