Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburgwas an American poet, writer, and editor who won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely regarded as "a major figure in contemporary literature", especially for volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems, Cornhuskers, and Smoke and Steel. He enjoyed "unrivaled appeal as a poet in his day, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life",...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth6 January 1878
CountryUnited States of America
I have written some poetry that I don't understand myself.
I've written some poetry I don't understand myself.
Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
Poetry is a kinetic arrangement of static syllables.
Poetry is the harnessing of the paradox of earth cradling life and then entombing it.
Poetry is an exhibit of one pendulum connecting with other and unseen pendulums inside and outside the one seen.
And all poets love dust and mist because all the last answers. Go running back to dust and mist.
Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.
Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable.
Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.
Sandburg's retelling of Lincoln's attendance at an evangelist rally led by Peter Cartwright in 1846, in response to accusations by Cartwright's followers that he was an "infidel" - Cartwright was his opponent in his race for Congress:
I won't take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth and never cherishes any memory except the face of the woman on the American silver dollar
If America forgets where she came from, if the people lose sight of what brought them along, if she listens to the deniers and mockers, then will begin the rot and dissolution.