Carl Sandburg

            
             Term Paper
            
            
             In his work Carl Sandburg gave voice to least powerful people. He was a central figure in the "Chicago Renaissance" and he played a significant role in the development in poetry that took place during the first two decades of the 20th century. His emphasis on the tradition of American experience associate him with Hart Crane and Robinson Jeffers.
            
             these people of the air,
             these children of the wind,
             had a sense of where to go and how,
             how to go north north-by-west north,
             till they came to one wooden pole,
             till they were home again.
             (From The People, Yes, 1936)
            
             The People, Yes (1936) is probably Sandburg's most popular single book. From his very volumes Sandburg was interested in the speech of Midwesterners, spoken by the working class of the industrial cities. In The People, Yes, his interest in folk speech and folk expression became a clear feature of his poetry. It also gave evidence of the author's epigrammatic skill and felicitous phasing. Because Sandburg's writings celebrated the American spirit, he was often called the successor to Walt Whitman. A lot of Sandburg's poems are in a Midwest setting and use some typical Midwest slang terminology. Even when the poem is not set in the Midwest there sometimes is a reference to something from the Midwest.
            
             Here in Omaha
             The gloaming is bitter
             As in Chicago
             Or Kenosha.
            
             The long sand changes.
             To-day is a goner.
             Time knocks in another brass nail.
             Another yellow plunger shoots the dark.
            
             Constellations
             Wheeling over Omaha
             As in Chicago
             Or Kenosha.
             (From Sunset From Omaha Hotel Window, 1918)
             In the poem above, it shows that Sandburg is relating things in Omaha to two cities from the Midwest. This is a great example of how Sandburg likes to tie his poems in with the Midwest.
             In the poem, Chicago Poet (1918), Sandburg talks to himself about himself. He says he doesn't know himself ...

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