Carl Sandburg's Poetry: A Brief Overview

 Carl Sandburg is often quoted as one of the greatest American poets the world has ever known, sharing a spot of recognition alongside such legends as Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. For a brief overview of his life, Sandburg was born in a small near Chicago in January of 1878 to his Swedish immigrant parents August and Clara Sandburg. He spent most of his childhood working and by the eighth grade dropped out of school completely to work various odd jobs. By 1897, he was officially homeless and began traveling the US.

 It was during this time that Sandburg started his lifelong obsession with poetry; in between working what odd jobs he could find, Sandburg became fascinated by the stories and songs sung by his fellow homeless companions. Sandburg would then practice these at public speaking engagements along with his own poetic creations and found he had a natural talent. Sandburg continued to work odd jobs before finally setting down as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and marrying his wife Lilian. Finally in 1914, a small group of his poems appeared in "Poetry" magazine and catapulted him into the legendary status he has today.

 Because of Sandburg's long time spend as a vagrant, he grew extremely concerned with the sharp contrast between the rich and poor that he experienced everyday on the road. Much of his poetry is spent dreaming of a way to escape your current situation and look to a better tomorrow, as shown in two of his more well known poems "In a Breath" and "The Bath." In "In a Breath", it is shown as hot day in a busy city. People are so uncomfortable that they seek solace in a local theater to escape their current surrounds. Inside they are shown pictures and clips of a tropical paradise with cooling waters and beautiful beaches, a image Sandburg most likely held onto when his own situation was uncomfortable. 

 In "The Bath", the poem is basically about a very depressed man despising the world around him. The poor soul sees life only as a cruel existent before the silence of death, a view perhaps Sandburg shared at times during his travels when all seemed lost. But then the man goes to a local concert and experiences the wonderful musical performances of a Jewish fiddler player; the music is able to break down the harden walls of misery clouding his judgment and he leaves the theater a changed man seeing the beauty in what he previously thought was a joke before death. Sandburg most likely felt the same way about the musical he experienced in his travels by fellow vagrants likely getting his inspiration by the folk songs sung probably daily. These folk songs were meant to tell of hope or a reward for the toils of the lowly, a message that would be deeply appealing to Sandburg being a homeless drifter and trying to survive day by day.    

 Carl Sandburg is without a doubt one of the most famous American poets of not only the early 20th century, but also out of American Literature history. Without the trying experiences he endured as a vagrant and drifter traveling the US, Sandburg would have probably never given us such great works of literature as "The Bath", "In a Breath", or any of his other fantastic writings; making the world a little darker without his uplifting stories of perseverance.