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68th out of 977 books
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Chicago Poems
Chicago Poems (1916) was Carl Sandburg's first published book of verse. Written in the poet's unique, personal idiom, these poems embody a soulfulness, lyric grace and a love of and compassion for the common man that earned Sandburg a reputation as a poet of the people.
Among the dozens of poems in this collection are such well-known verses as Chicago, Fog, To a Contemporar...more
Among the dozens of poems in this collection are such well-known verses as Chicago, Fog, To a Contemporar...more
Paperback, 88 pages
Published
May 20th 1994
by Dover Publications
(first published 1916)
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I thought I liked Sandburg. I read Maybe many years ago and it seemed funny, witty and different. And short, by all means. (Not in this volume)
Maybe he believes me, maybe not.
Maybe I can marry him, maybe not.
Maybe the wind on the prairie,
The wind on the sea, maybe,
Somebody, somewhere, maybe can tell.
I will lay my head on his shoulder
And when he asks me I will say yes,
Maybe.
At times, reading Chicago Poems feels like reading prose; not the short and witty stuff I expected. The city gets mythical p...more
Maybe he believes me, maybe not.
Maybe I can marry him, maybe not.
Maybe the wind on the prairie,
The wind on the sea, maybe,
Somebody, somewhere, maybe can tell.
I will lay my head on his shoulder
And when he asks me I will say yes,
Maybe.
At times, reading Chicago Poems feels like reading prose; not the short and witty stuff I expected. The city gets mythical p...more
Sandburg unequivocally stands alongside the very greatest of American Poets, not least because the same author who gives us one of most celebrated examples of modern poetry, a verse so universal that my mother would recite it to me before I'd learned to read (i.e. THE fog comes / on little cat feet. / It sits looking / over harbor and city / on silent haunches / and then moves on.) and yet could produce work as profound as any metaphysical poet, drawing the tension between the mundane and the et...more
Chicago is the most American of cities, and Sandburg is among the most American of poets. His strong, oily, rough, brittle, acrid, hilarious, roughneck, tender odes to Chi-town are celebrations, indictments, and love-letters.
Whitman may have invented free verse, but writers like Sandburg perfected it. These poems would lose their impact written in any other form.
Here's the essence of Sandburg's genius: he writes tough and manly songs without sacrificing the true poetic element, and he sings the...more
Whitman may have invented free verse, but writers like Sandburg perfected it. These poems would lose their impact written in any other form.
Here's the essence of Sandburg's genius: he writes tough and manly songs without sacrificing the true poetic element, and he sings the...more
Chicago Poems, by Carl Sandburg, is an amazing collection of poetry.
Mr friend Janeen recently visited Chicago and took some brilliant photos. After looking at them, I felt as if I was there. Though I have never been to Chicago, the reality of the place was clearly and beautifully presented in her photography.
This is the case with Chicago Poems as well. In Chicago poems, Carl Sandburg snaps beautiful and poetic pictures of Chicago and her people. We get a glimpse of humanity and travel back in ti...more
Mr friend Janeen recently visited Chicago and took some brilliant photos. After looking at them, I felt as if I was there. Though I have never been to Chicago, the reality of the place was clearly and beautifully presented in her photography.
This is the case with Chicago Poems as well. In Chicago poems, Carl Sandburg snaps beautiful and poetic pictures of Chicago and her people. We get a glimpse of humanity and travel back in ti...more
I really have always adored Sandburg's geographical poetry, and the poetry he does about people. There's really something about "Chicago" that gets me - the fact that it is what everyone says it is, it's awful and terrible but it's also proud and shining and good, and that resonates with me and how I feel about my own hometown.
I hadn't realized, however, how much of an impact his war poems would have. It's not the same sense of death in the trenches that other WWI poets (like, say, Owen or Sasso...more
I hadn't realized, however, how much of an impact his war poems would have. It's not the same sense of death in the trenches that other WWI poets (like, say, Owen or Sasso...more
The "Nigger" usage and black stereotyping aside, lol, this is a hell of a book of prose. Short and sweet, but very complex at times where a 10 line poem will take you 3, 4 minutes to divulge via the strength of metaphor. Carl Sandburg obviously a racist, I could see meant "well" I guess writing of black folk in his poems. But hell, this was 1916! for goodness sakes, lol, every white person was pretty much racist then. But still, Sandburg was top 5 or so, maybe even higher, of WORLD poets of his...more
Well, by far on of the greatest collections ever of one of the greatest American poets. I really love it, not only because I live in Chicago.
And here is my little contribution to this great city:
One Poet in Chicago
This city is scary and supreme.
Its shiny lakeshore with white yachts
and seagulls and herons, tilting
quietly upon the marble waves.
The hard-blowing wind,
licking the rind of the imposing trees.
Those crazy and beautiful people,
walking up and down the streets,
as the Sears tower pierces t...more
And here is my little contribution to this great city:
One Poet in Chicago
This city is scary and supreme.
Its shiny lakeshore with white yachts
and seagulls and herons, tilting
quietly upon the marble waves.
The hard-blowing wind,
licking the rind of the imposing trees.
Those crazy and beautiful people,
walking up and down the streets,
as the Sears tower pierces t...more
4 likes
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For "Chicago Poems" I guess I was expecting something more. The definition of this "City of Big Shoulders" and a mythology one could cling to, the way New Yorkers define themselves against the rest of the world.
Carl Sandburg was the namesake for the junior high school I attended, in a suburb of Chicago. There were two other middle schools in that suburb, one *almost* named after a famous English statesman (Winston Churchill; Churchville's close, right?) and the other after... god knows whom (may...more
Carl Sandburg was the namesake for the junior high school I attended, in a suburb of Chicago. There were two other middle schools in that suburb, one *almost* named after a famous English statesman (Winston Churchill; Churchville's close, right?) and the other after... god knows whom (may...more
This is probably my favorite collection of Sandburg's poetry, though I like so much of his work that it's hard to decide in truth. Living outside of Chicago and being familiar with it and with the prairieland as well, the images always strike home. For years I drove downstate, passed endless twists of barbed wire, corn, bleached barns and Sandburg always came to mind. He comes to mind often when I'm in the city. Particularly when I'm on the train there and watching the towns pass by before reach...more
LET a joy keep you.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen them
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere—
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen them
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere—
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.
Mar 19, 2008
Joe
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
shake hands with simple poetry
Shelves:
poetry
I lost my notes for this book and I'm pissed about that. From what I can see, Sandburg stands somewhere between the populism of Whitman and that of Phil Levine. He's at his best when employing an expansive line and listing away. Yet, pointing the way to Levine, his enthusiasm is more tempered than Whitman's, his embrace a little more stiff and a little less subversive. His poems are shorter than Whitman's and the non logical leaps that the lists allow are a little less surprising. The last half...more
This book is a collection of poems, written in a prose manner. The book was published in the early 1900's and written by Carl Sandburg. This collection of poems depicts Chicago through the eyes of the author. For a vast majority of the book, the poems are about Chicago, but Sandburg also delves into issues of that time period such as love and death.
It's actually been about a year since I read this, so I'll have to check it out again, but it's really one of the best poetry books I've ever read. (And yes, I've read more than one.) Sandburg captures the feel of people and cities just as compellingly as Robert Frost captures the feel of nature and nostalgic Americana.
Dec 14, 2012
Erin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
poetry,
wide-reading-book,
social-studies,
high-school,
tone,
voice,
mood,
figurative-language
Carl Sandburg's Chicago poems are iconic and depict Chicago during the Industrial Revolution as a big city earning its name. This collection would work well with high school students studying the era as well as in a poetry unit study imagery and tone. After students have analyze Sandburg's poems, the could go on a field trip and visit the various areas of the city that Sandburg was referring to and compare their current state. They could then compare the two and create their own works based upon...more
A short book for those of us who aren't wild about poetry. My favorites: Chicago (this is the "hog butcher" poem; Halsted Street Car (because I've been on Halsted); Margaret (every parent should read this one--Margaret is Sandburg's daughter); and of course, Fog.
Carl Sandburg is my favorite poet and this is by far my favorite collection of poems. He gives a hard unforgiving but obviously respectful look into the second city and the midwest. The intensity of life in a great urban sprawl. Great poetry.
Some really beautiful pieces in this. My favorites were from the section entitled, "handfuls." Short little brain snacks yum yum yum! As someone who moved here for school, it made me feel closer to Chicago in a way.
I wasn't too impressed with this little collection of poems. There was very few that I liked, although all were well written. They were either not dismal enough or uninspiring at times. There were maybe two or three that I really liked and that was all. Oh well better luck next time...
There were a few memorable poems here that bumped this up in my estimation, but for the most part much of this collection did not capture me.
I really feel a sense that I need to be writing in some capacity after reading this book of poems. Keep the Chicago literary legacy alive...
What an insightful and powerful poet. Course my favorite poem is Fog, "The fog comes on little cat feet." And I skipped all the war ones.
Its very manly/ darker poetry. But very appropriate for Chicago during the early 1900s, which I find fascinating. Excellent.
Chicago, hog butcher to the world. City of big shoulders. Awesome poem!
It is amazing how grimy America is. I hate Carl Sandturd.
One of my very favorite books of poetry.
Urban, socially conscious, very forward.
I love Carl Sandburg's imagery!
Sandburg is always good.
Favorite poems of all time.
Nothing special. Still better than CORNHUSKERS, though.
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Carl August Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat".
For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_San...
More about Carl Sandburg...
For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_San...
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1 trivia question
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“Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!
But leave me a little love.”
—
31 people liked it
More quotes…
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!
But leave me a little love.”
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Got a book of good poetry yesterday and bot...more
Dec 01, 2010 04:51am
Dec 01, 2010 06:07am