Carl Sandburg Poems

Poems » carl sandburg

Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, historian, novelist, balladeer, and folklorist. He was born in Galesburg, Illinois of Swedish parents and died at his home, named Connemara, in Flat Rock, North Carolina. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat." He was a successful journalist, poet, historian, biographer, and autobiographer. During the course of his career, Sandburg won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln: The War Years) and one for his collection The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg. During the Spanish-American War, Sandburg enlisted in the 6th Illinois Infantry, and he participated in the landing at Guánica on July 25, 1898 during the invasion of Puerto Rico. Following a brief (two-week) career as a student at West Point, Sandburg chose to attend Lombard College in Galesburg. He left college without a degree in 1903. Sandburg lived for a brief period in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during which he became a member of the Social Democratic Party and took a strong interest in the socialist community. He worked as a secretary to Mayor Emil Seidel, the first socialist mayor in the United States. Sandburg met Lilian Steichen, sister of the famed photographer, Edward Steichen, at the Social Democratic Headquarters. Lilian (nicknamed "Paus'l" by her mother and "Paula" by Carl) and Carl were married in 1908; they would go on to have three daughters. Sandburg moved to Harbert, Michigan. From 1912 to 1928 he lived in Chicago, nearby Evanston and Elmhurst. During this time he began work on his series of biographies on Abraham Lincoln, which would eventually earn him his Pulitzer Prize in history (for Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, 1940). In 1945, the Sandburg family moved from the Midwest, where they'd spent most of their lives, to the Connemara estate, in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Connemara was ideal for the family, as it gave Mr. Sandburg an entire mountain top to roam and enough solitude for him to write. It also provided Mrs. Sandburg over 30 acres of pasture to raise and graze her prize-winning dairy goats.

elephants are different to different people
 
 
Wilson and Pilcer and Snack stood before the zoo elephant.

Wilson said, "What is its... [read poem]
enigma
 
 
Some men are born to gather women's tears,
To give a harbour to their timorous fears,
To t... [read poem]
the forsaken
 
 
Once in the winter
Out on a lake
In the heart of the north-land,
Far from the Fort... [read poem]
the half-breed girl
 
 
She is free of the trap and the paddle,
The portage and the trail,
But something behin... [read poem]
bronzes
 
 
THE bronze General Grant riding a bronze horse in Linc-
oln Park... [read poem]
to a canadian aviator who died for his country in france
 
 
Tossed like a falcon from the hunter's wrist,
A sweeping plunge, a sudden shattering noise,... [read poem]
permanence
 
 
Set within a desert lone,
Circled by an arid sea,
Stands a figure carved in stone,... [read poem]
the height of land
 
 
Here is the height of land:
The watershed on either hand
Goes down to Hudson Bay
Or L... [read poem]
rapids at night
 
 
Here at the roots of the mountains,
Between the sombre legions of cedars and tamaracks,
Th... [read poem]
night hymns on lake nipigon
 
 
Here in the midnight, where the dark mainland and island
Shadows mingle in shadow deeper, profo... [read poem]
ode for the keats centenary
 
 
February 23, 1921.

Read at Hart House Theatre before the University of Toronto.[read poem]
the onondaga madonna
 
 
She stands full-throated and with careless pose,
This woman of a weird and waning race,
Th... [read poem]
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