Snadburg was born on January 6, 1878 in his family's three room cottage in Illinois
Sandburg was the second of seven children
Sandburg quit school after eighth grade (1891)
Sandburg had many jobs after quitting school such as delivering bricks and laying bricks and eventually travled as a hobo in 1897
Sandburg served in the Spanish-American War in 1898, and then in 1899 he went to Lombard College back in Illinois, now a fireman
Sandburg was in the Poor Writers' Club in college, which was a club that met to read and criticize poetry
The professor in charge of the Poor Writers' Club, Phillip Green Wright, encouraged Sandburg to write and even published three of Sandburgs books; In RecklessEctasy, Incidentals, and The Plaint of a Rose
Sandburg married Lilian Steichen in 1908 and became a journalist in Illinois
Sandburg was published in the Poetry maganize in 1914 and then got his books, Chicago Poems and Corhuskers, published in 1916 and 1918, respectively
Sandburg won the Pulitzer Prize for Abraham Lincoln: The War Years in 1940 (which was part of a six volume biography of Abraham Lincoln) and in 1951 he won the Pulitzer Prize again for his Complete Poems
Dragoons, I tell you the white hydrangeas turn rust and go soon. Already mid September a line of brown runs over them. One sunset after another tracks the faces, the petals. Waiting, they look over the fence for what way they go.
I think that the controlling idea in this poem was death. The poem says "...the white hydrangeas turn to rust and go soon." This shows the death part of the controlling idea, since when flowers die they turn brown. Also, the line "One sunset after another tracks the faces, the petals." is talking about time wearing on, but the flowers are still slowly dying.
One literary device that Sandburg used in this poem was personification in the line "Waiting, they look over the fence for what way they go." Personification is when a writer gives human characteristics or abilities to a non-human that they would not normally be able to do. in this poem, Sandburg used personification to make a point as to how all things die and that plants are similar to humans in the fact that sometimes death is slow.
A Fence
Now the stone house on the lake front is finished and the workmen are beginning the fence. The palings are made of iron bars with steel points that can stab the life out of any man who falls on them. As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut off the rabble and all vagabonds and hungry men and all wandering children looking for a place to play. Passing through the bars and over the steel points will go nothing except Death and the Rain and To-morrow.
The controlling idea in this poem is that society has consistantly become less welcoming to others. This is shown in the line, "As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut off that rabble and all vagabonds and hungry men and all wandering children looking for a place to play." Also, the line, "the palings are made of iron bars with steel points that can stab the life out of any man who falls on them." shows how people just don't want anything to do with people they've never met, how no one wants to let people in, especially people they don't know. Plus, this poem kind of shows how society is coming to the point where people don't want any contact with other people, unless they choose to.
One literary device that he uses in this poem was symbolism. A symbol is something in a piece that is used to represent something else. The symbol in this peom is the fence, which symbolizes the human mind. It was used in this poem to show how humans have the ability to either shut people and other things they don't want in their lives out. You can see this through the line, "Passing through the bars and over the steel points, will go nothing except Death and the Rain and To-morrow."
A Million Young Work Men Ode to Carl Sandburg
A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads, And the million are now under soil and their rottening flesh will in the years feed roots of blood -red roses. Yes, this million of young workmen slaughtered one another and never saw their red hands. And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun if the million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death. The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar—they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war I dreamed a million ghosts of the young workmen rose in their shirts all soaked in crimson … and yelled: God damn the grinning kings, God damn the kaiser and the czar.
The controlling idea of this poem is that it isn't fair that kings and rulers don't really have anything to do with the wars they get their people into and that a lot of the times the people don't even know why they're fighting each other. For example, the line, "The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar—they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war." shows exactly the fact that the rulers are nowhere near the battles and are perfectly safe at home, while the citizens of the country are out being killed and don't even know why they're killing each other. The line, "And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun ifthe million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death." shows exactly that.
One literary device Sandburg used was imagery. Imagery is the use of descriptions to create a certain mental picture for the reader. In this poem, Sandburg uses imagery to paint a picture of the rulers in their safe homes; " The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar--- they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war." Also, the lines; "A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads,
Ode to Carl Sandburg
He writes of the roses red, and of the hardships faced by the everyday person. Oh, how I wish to be like he that writes about the normal way, of life and death and of the roses red. How I long for the ability to write in such a splendid fashion and not have to think, what comes from my head is perfection, like the morning dew, on the blood red roses in the cool sand.
His poems like the sweet candy on Halloween night, sneaking a glimpse at all of what is to come. Like the brand new dawn on a winter's morning, I fall in love with the lines of poetry once again. Line after line I read them for the meanings and hope to once again discover the beauty. And the runts of the litter allude to the lore of their creator and to his pain.
The pain springs from the pen that is used to invent them, and jot them down. The words show of a past the world abused. A past so intriguing, talk of the town, yet, still the beauty of the lines pulls me into the heart of the poem and I can feel the blood red roses made of silk, the soothing rhythm, like green tea on a cold evening. Overtaken by emotion, my love does not ever bilk.
The content is good, and the rhyme scheme works. However, lots of lines are off with syllables. I stopped checking them after the first few ones I bolded.
- Snadburg was born on January 6, 1878 in his family's three room cottage in Illinois
- Sandburg was the second of seven children
- Sandburg quit school after eighth grade (1891)
- Sandburg had many jobs after quitting school such as delivering bricks and laying bricks and eventually travled as a hobo in 1897
- Sandburg served in the Spanish-American War in 1898, and then in 1899 he went to Lombard College back in Illinois, now a fireman
- Sandburg was in the Poor Writers' Club in college, which was a club that met to read and criticize poetry
- The professor in charge of the Poor Writers' Club, Phillip Green Wright, encouraged Sandburg to write and even published three of Sandburgs books; In Reckless Ectasy, Incidentals, and The Plaint of a Rose
- Sandburg married Lilian Steichen in 1908 and became a journalist in Illinois
- Sandburg was published in the Poetry maganize in 1914 and then got his books, Chicago Poems and Corhuskers, published in 1916 and 1918, respectively
- Sandburg won the Pulitzer Prize for Abraham Lincoln: The War Years in 1940 (which was part of a six volume biography of Abraham Lincoln) and in 1951 he won the Pulitzer Prize again for his Complete Poems
http://carl-sandburg.com/biography.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sandburg
Hydrangeas
Dragoons, I tell you the white hydrangeas turn rust and go soon.
Already mid September a line of brown runs over them.
One sunset after another tracks the faces, the petals.
Waiting, they look over the fence for what way they go.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotologic/211866086/
I think that the controlling idea in this poem was death. The poem says "...the white hydrangeas turn to rust and go soon." This shows the death part of the controlling idea, since when flowers die they turn brown. Also, the line "One sunset after another tracks the faces, the petals." is talking about time wearing on, but the flowers are still slowly dying.
One literary device that Sandburg used in this poem was personification in the line "Waiting, they look over the fence for what way they go." Personification is when a writer gives human characteristics or abilities to a non-human that they would not normally be able to do. in this poem, Sandburg used personification to make a point as to how all things die and that plants are similar to humans in the fact that sometimes death is slow.
A Fence
Now the stone house on the lake front is finished and the
workmen are beginning the fence.
The palings are made of iron bars with steel points that
can stab the life out of any man who falls on them.
As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut off the rabble
and all vagabonds and hungry men and all wandering
children looking for a place to play.
Passing through the bars and over the steel points will go
nothing except Death and the Rain and To-morrow.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hashir/941332266/sizes/m/in/photostream/
The controlling idea in this poem is that society has consistantly become less welcoming to others. This is shown in the line, "As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut off that rabble and all vagabonds and hungry men and all wandering children looking for a place to play." Also, the line, "the palings are made of iron bars with steel points that can stab the life out of any man who falls on them." shows how people just don't want anything to do with people they've never met, how no one wants to let people in, especially people they don't know. Plus, this poem kind of shows how society is coming to the point where people don't want any contact with other people, unless they choose to.
One literary device that he uses in this poem was symbolism. A symbol is something in a piece that is used to represent something else. The symbol in this peom is the fence, which symbolizes the human mind. It was used in this poem to show how humans have the ability to either shut people and other things they don't want in their lives out. You can see this through the line, "Passing through the bars and over the steel points, will go nothing except Death and the Rain and To-morrow."
A Million Young Work Men Ode to Carl Sandburg
A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads,
And the million are now under soil and their rottening flesh will in the years feed roots of blood
-red roses.
Yes, this million of young workmen slaughtered one another and never saw their red hands.
And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun if
the million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death.
The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar—they are alive riding in leather-seated motor
cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for
breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war
I dreamed a million ghosts of the young workmen rose in their shirts all soaked in crimson …
and yelled:
God damn the grinning kings, God damn the kaiser and the czar.
http://nostalgicglass.org/projects/p1/dylitsy-1984.jpg
The controlling idea of this poem is that it isn't fair that kings and rulers don't really have anything to do with the wars they get their people into and that a lot of the times the people don't even know why they're fighting each other. For example, the line, "The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar—they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war." shows exactly the fact that the rulers are nowhere near the battles and are perfectly safe at home, while the citizens of the country are out being killed and don't even know why they're killing each other. The line, "And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun ifthe million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death." shows exactly that.
One literary device Sandburg used was imagery. Imagery is the use of descriptions to create a certain mental picture for the reader. In this poem, Sandburg uses imagery to paint a picture of the rulers in their safe homes; " The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar--- they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war." Also, the lines; "A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads,
Ode to Carl Sandburg
He writes of the roses red, and of the
hardships faced by the everyday
person. Oh, how I wish to be like he
that writes about the normal way,
of life and death and of the roses red.
How I long for the ability to
write in such a splendid fashion and
not have to think, what comes from my head
is perfection, like the morning dew,
on the blood red roses in the cool sand.
His poems like the sweet candy on
Halloween night, sneaking a glimpse at all
of what is to come. Like the brand new dawn
on a winter's morning, I fall
in love with the lines of poetry once
again. Line after line I read them for
the meanings and hope to once again
discover the beauty. And the runts
of the litter allude to the lore
of their creator and to his pain.
The pain springs from the pen that is used
to invent them, and jot them down.
The words show of a past the world abused.
A past so intriguing, talk of the town,
yet, still the beauty of the lines pulls me
into the heart of the poem and I
can feel the blood red roses made of silk,
the soothing rhythm, like green tea
on a cold evening. Overtaken by
emotion, my love does not ever bilk.
The content is good, and the rhyme scheme works. However, lots of lines are off with syllables. I stopped checking them after the first few ones I bolded.