Carl Sandburg Criticism
Carl Sandburg, a central figure in American literature, is renowned for his innovative use of free verse that captures the informal speech of the Midwest, most notably in his groundbreaking collection, Chicago Poems (1916). His work is characterized by vibrant imagery and a focus on the lives of ordinary people, exploring both urban and rural experiences with powerful realism and emotional depth. Despite early criticism for his straightforward style, prominent critics like Harriet Monroe and John T. Frederick have praised his efforts. His broader oeuvre, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Abraham Lincoln: The War Years and The People, Yes, reflects a deep engagement with American history and social issues. Bruce Weirick even likens Sandburg to Walt Whitman, suggesting that he embodies the spirit of American populism.
Although some, like David Perkins, have critiqued his "subliterary" approach, Sandburg's use of vernacular and idiomatic expressions has been recognized for its authenticity. Critics such as Louis D. Rubin, Jr. have noted a tendency towards rhetoric in his later poetry, yet his Lincoln biographies remain highly esteemed. President Lyndon Johnson encapsulated his influence, noting that Sandburg "was more than the voice of America… He was America."
Despite criticisms regarding the form of his poetry from figures like William Carlos Williams, others, including Daniel Hoffman, commend his empathetic representation of everyday Americans. His literary contributions earned him two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his comprehensive six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln and another for his Collected Poems. Sandburg's work eschews philosophical abstraction, as analyzed by Richard H. Crowder, and his ability to liberate poetry from traditional constraints remains influential.
In works such as Honey and Salt, Sandburg is celebrated for capturing a vision of America with simplicity and youthful idealism. While his novel Remembrance Rock received less acclaim, his influence persists, as noted by Herbert Mitgang, for his engagement with diverse poetic forms. His posthumous volume, Breathing Tokens, further expands his reception, particularly among British audiences, as Derek Stanford highlights. Sandburg’s legacy as a major influence in American poetry endures, underscored by his distinct voice and dedication to portraying the American experience.
Contents
- Principal Works
- Sandburg, Carl (Vol. 1)
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Sandburg, Carl (Vol. 15)
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Carl Sandburg's 'Complete Poems'
(summary)
In the following essay, William Carlos Williams argues that Carl Sandburg, despite his early promise, ultimately failed to develop a cohesive poetic form, resulting in a body of work characterized by formlessness and an inability to convey the deeper complexities of modern life.
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Sandburg's Chromatic Vision in 'Honey and Salt'
(summary)
In the following essay, Richard H. Crowder analyzes Carl Sandburg's use of vivid color imagery in his poetry collection "Honey and Salt," highlighting Sandburg's focus on the everyday experiences of common Americans, his loyalty to his homeland, and his avoidance of philosophical abstraction in favor of simplicity and youthful idealism.
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Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Herbert Mitgang explores Carl Sandburg's contributions to American literature, highlighting his role in liberating poetry from traditional constraints, his engagement with diverse poetic forms, and his ability to capture the spirit of America's landscapes and working-class life, despite his novel Remembrance Rock being less successful.
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'Moonlight Dries No Mittens': Carl Sandburg Reconsidered
(summary)
In the following essay, Daniel Hoffman examines Carl Sandburg's poetry and prose, arguing that while Sandburg's work may lack the formal innovation of his contemporaries, it powerfully captures the voices and experiences of "the people" through its inclusivity, empathy, and unique American lyricism, offering a democratic art that endures.
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The Scholar-Poet
(summary)
In the following essay, Derek Stanford argues that Carl Sandburg's poetry, often compared to Walt Whitman's in its depiction of American progress, is reassessed through the posthumous collection Breathing Tokens, revealing aspects of Sandburg as an amatory Imagist previously unknown to British readers.
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Carl Sandburg's 'Complete Poems'
(summary)
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Sandburg, Carl (Vol. 10)
- Gay Wilson Allen
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David Perkins
(summary)
In the following essay, David Perkins examines Carl Sandburg's poetic style, highlighting his ability to depict the American people and landscape with a flexible and inventive approach, though critiquing his tendency towards a minimalistic demand on his poetry, which often results in works lacking depth and synthesis.
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Not to Forget Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Louis D. Rubin, Jr. argues that Carl Sandburg's pioneering use of vernacular language in his poetry, although initially groundbreaking in capturing the essence of everyday experiences, eventually succumbed to rhetoric and self-parody, but his biographical work on Abraham Lincoln stands as a testament to his literary prowess and integrity.
- Sandburg, Carl (Vol. 4)
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Sandburg, Carl
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Review of Chicago Poems
(summary)
In the following review of Chicago Poems, Monroe characterizes Sandburg's work as “a masterpiece of portraiture” that ranges from the “rugged” to the “exquisitely delicate.”
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Review of Chicago Poems
(summary)
In the following review, Frederick praises the “clearness and validity” of Sandburg's interpretation of early twentieth-century America in his Chicago Poems.
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Review of Chicago Poems
(summary)
In the following review, Zwaska comments on Sandburg as a success among modern poets, and on the vast range of life displayed in Chicago Poems.
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Review of Chicago Poems
(summary)
In the following review, Hackett admires the intensity and rhythm of Chicago Poems but disagrees with Sandburg's vision of Chicago.
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Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Lowell considers Sandburg's life, his work as a propagandist and lyric poet, and his place in the American poetic tradition.
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Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Untermeyer extols the combination of strength, delicacy, and passion in the verses of Chicago Poems and Cornhuskers.
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A Poet of the Common-Place
(summary)
In the following essay, Benjamin lauds Sandburg as a poet of sympathy, simplicity, and the everyday.
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Review of Chicago Poems, Cornhuskers, and Smoke and Steel
(summary)
In the following review of Sandburg's first three major volumes of verse, Loeber argues against those critics who dismiss Sandburg's poetry as merely “tough” or “insensitive.”
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Ezra Pound on Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Pound writes flippantly on the subject of labeling Sandburg a “tough” poet.
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The Voice of Chicago: Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Boynton discusses Sandburg as a Chicago writer, the “brutality” of his language, his concern with social injustice, and his poetic frankness.
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Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Cook briefly summarizes Sandburg's life and career as a poet up to 1923.
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The Rise of the Middle West
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In the following excerpt, Weirick calls Sandburg the chief poet of the Middle West and the principal successor to Walt Whitman in American poetry.
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Carl Sandburg: Formalist
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Jones evaluates Sandburg as a poet and underscores his strongly satirical voice.
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Sara Teasdale, Alan Seeger, and Others
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Phelps finds Chicago Poems “overrated” but acknowledges that Sandburg is an original writer with the “true power of poetic interpretation.”
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Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Whipple surveys Sandburg's poetic sensibility and vision, arguing that while his talents and significance are considerable, Sandburg's poetry is sometimes poorly realized.
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Who Reads Carl Sandburg?
(summary)
In the following essay, Compton collects responses to Sandburg's works from a number of ordinary readers.
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Springfield, Spoon River and the Prairies
(summary)
In the following essay, Kreymborg traces Sandburg's poetic development from Chicago Poems to Good Morning, America.
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Carl Sandburg: Crusader and Mystic
(summary)
In the following essay, Cargill investigates political themes in Sandburg's writing, which he finds to be ultimately detrimental to Sandburg's later poetry.
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The ‘New’ Poetry
(summary)
In the following excerpt from a summary volume of U.S. literary history, the unsigned critic alleges that there is no significant stylistic development among Sandburg's collections of poetry but acknowledges that The People, Yes (1936) 'is one of the great American books.'
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Your Friend the Poet—Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Basler appraises Sandburg as a poet outside of the literary establishment.
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Introduction to Carl Sandburg: A Bibliography of Sandburg Materials in the Collections of the Library of Congress
(summary)
In the following essay, Van Doren assesses Sandburg's varied poetic talent and accomplishments.
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Behold the Proverbs of a People: A Florilegium of Proverbs in Carl Sandburg's Poem ‘Good Morning, America.’
(summary)
In the following essay, Mieder studies Sandburg's use and manipulation of American proverbs in his poem “Good Morning, America.”
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Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Wilson details Sandburg's life and literary career, citing significant developments in his later poetry.
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Sandburg's Chromatic Vision in Honey and Salt
(summary)
In the following essay, Crowder investigates Sandburg's rich and figurative use of color in his 1963 collection, Honey and Salt.
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The People, Yes: Sandburg's Dreambook for Today
(summary)
In the following essay, Mayer traces the “lyrical pessimism” of Sandburg's early poetry, finding a late response to it in The People, Yes, which presents Sandburg's theme of “the divinity of the people.”
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Carl Sandburg's Influence on Modern Poetry
(summary)
In the following essay, Crowder claims that Sandburg's impact on American poets and poetry is greater than most critics are likely to admit.
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The Clash of American Dreams in Carl Sandburg's Poetry
(summary)
In the following essay, Friberg probes Sandburg's poetry as it presents a tension between two ideals—America as a paradise and America as a land of progress—and as it promotes the possibilities of a socialist society in America.
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The Day Book Poems of Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Reid focuses on four largely unknown poems by Sandburg originally published in the Chicago newspaper The Day Book while Sandburg was a member of the staff.
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The Cycle of Life: Motifs in the Chicago Poems of Carl Sandburg
(summary)
In the following essay, Brumm enumerates leitmotifs—including the innocent child, victimized maiden, and death—in Sandburg's Chicago Poems.
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From the Bottom Up: Three Radicals of the Thirties
(summary)
In the following essay, Oktenberg examines Sandburg's myth of “the People” and unfavorably compares the poet to Walt Whitman as a representative of America and democracy.
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Taming the Socialist: Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems and Its Critics
(summary)
In the following essay, Van Wienen maintains that Sandburg was far more political in his early poetry than is generally acknowledged. Carl Sandburg's reputation as the adulatory biographer of Lincoln and as a folksy, silver-haired singer of ballads and reciter of poems has obscured the radically innovative and oppositional character of his earlier poetic work. Set in the context of Sandburg's socialist politics of the teens rather than the moderate populism of his later career, the early poems emerge as protests both against much of conventional American political life and against established literary practice.
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The People's Poet
(summary)
In the following essay, Epstein sees Sandburg as more an entertainer than a poet and chronicles his spectacular lifelong fame.
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Review of Chicago Poems
(summary)
In the following review of the reissued Chicago Poems, the unsigned critic draws attention to the work's ambivalent status near the end of the twentieth century. This reissue of Sandburg's first book of poems, originally published in 1914, includes the much-anthologized 'Chicago' (which labeled the city as the 'Hog Butcher for the World') and 'Fog' (which moved on famously feline paws). As John E. Hallwas points out in his evenhanded introduction, all of Sandburg's strengths and weaknesses are clearly displayed in this book, arguably the strongest one he ever wrote. Chicago Poems is particularly interesting to read in 1992, when free verse rather than rhymed and metered poems dominate the literary journals. Indeed, though these poems were once considered bold for their 'powerful free verse,' many of them could appear in a contemporary poetry publication without drawing attention to themselves—though it is arguable whether this is a compliment or a condemnation.
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Carl Sandburg's Unnatural Relations
(summary)
In the following essay, Beyers links Chicago Poems to poetic tradition, observing that in many cases Sandburg modernized older forms in his verse.
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Sandburg's ‘They Will Say.’
(summary)
In the following essay, an anonymous critic discusses the merits of Sandburg's poem “They Will Say.”
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Review of Chicago Poems
(summary)
- Further Reading