Carl Sandburg's Poetry

"In a Breath" Sandburg appears to have set this poem on a hot summer day in a early 1900s city. Sandburg shows this by claiming to hear the hoofs of horses along with the humming of motors outside. As it is so hot out, many of the passers-by feel the need to cool off in what is assummed to be a theater.

 The theater is shows pictures and movies of cool, tropical places and the natural wonders experienced there. ( The fish, coral reefs, cool breeze, etc.) He pays particular attention to the movie playing of a group of fisherman wrestling a shark barehanded. He streeses how dangerous this type of fishing is by how the shark could easily kill the diver with a stroke of his tail; along with describing how deadly the sharks teeth are as he is taken in by the divers brothers.

 With the end of the poem comes the back track to reality that this is a world far away from the city the viewers are currently in. The poem fades out with the reenforcement of how hot the city is as the women are wearing such light clothing.

"The Bath"
 Sandburg has apparently made this poem at first about a deeply depressed man's view at the world. He despises his lot in life, claiming over and over again how nothing is true and life is nothing more then a long walk to death and silence. A horrible interuptation of life, but this all changes after the man goes to a concert on night.

 The medicine of beautiful music breaks down his misconceptions on life as he knows it. The music washes over him in waves of happiness and bliss. The sounds of Mischa Elman's fiddle rebuilt his shattered misconceptions of the world and left him so hungered for more he stuck around for 5 encores. When he left the concert physically he may have been the same person, but mentally he had a new outlook on the world. Where he sung with a fevered pitch and roses seemed to bloom in everything.

Why does it matter?
 In each of Carl Sandburg's poems, Carl gives the impression that each of these poems begin with a situation of uncomfortableness. One with a man with a depressingly pesimistic view of the world; where there is no good in the world anymore only the silence of death at the end of our existance. The other is a broader view of a neighborhood in the grip of a hot summer day, with many people flocking to find relief from the sun's rays.

 Each poem continues and soon both find a way to escape their respected unfortunate situation. In "In a Breath", the people of the city go into a theater to escape the heat and dream of a far away tropical paradise. A place with cooling beaches, blue waters, and natives living life as they have known it for centuries; truly a peaceful place to just relax. In "The Bath", it is through the music of a fiddle player that the depressed gentlemen can see the beauty of the life; at first he thought the world was so filled with despair and hopelessness that he never stopped to appreciate the beauty of the arts.

 It is in my opinion, these two poems are a way for us the reader to remind ourselves that the world as we see it is only a small sliver of whats out there to experience. The way we can see ourselves in society is like a drop of water in an olympic swimming pool, it's too huge to completely comprehend. So if we feel down or uncomfortable one day, cheer up cause it's only for alittle while.