Carl Sandburg: Chicago Poems—#2

Carl Sandburg: Chicago Poems—#2

Maybe sometime after 1906 Carl Sandburg met Jurgis Rudkus when they were both hobo-ing it across the Midwest. In the poem, ‘Boes, Sandburg states: We were three in all, the other being a Lithuanian who got drunk on pay day at the steel works and got to fighting a policeman.

I’d like to think that Socialism was just another of the many disappointments in Jurgis’ life. After quitting his bellboy job—mainly due to the boring and endless speeches— he returned to the slaughterhouse to look for secluded, sonically superior work where he could never hear anybody make speeches. But, he was never picked from the line: being too old and weak. So, he went back to the steel mill and harvester works and found employment. Jurgis pacified his pain with drink and convenient companionship. The policeman he punched was trying to arrest Jurgis’ recycled sweetheart as she was on her way to meet Jurgis at the same whorehouse where Marija lived and worked.

I could be wrong. Maybe it was a different Lithuanian hobo who liked to drink and fight policemen after working at the steel mill. Its great reading Sandburg again after Devil in the White city and The Jungle!

Carl Sandburg: Chicago Poems—#1

Carl Sandburg: Chicago Poems—#1
I felt that there were a few gems in this seemingly unedited collection of poems. Some descriptions are clichés that one might find in a high school kid’s journal. Sandburg may have invented these clichés, but the combination of these AND the formulaic writing wear me down:

• There is an event.
  
• It happens to somebody in the upper crust of society.
• It is compared and contrasted against somebody in the lower rungs.
  
• Themes are mostly about the suffering poor.
  

Cumulatives offers a more interesting way of comparing and contrasting.

The ones that really spoke to me:

CHICAGO POEMS
Chicago
Happiness
To certain Journeymen
Mag
Under a hat rim
Bath is cool—a man transformed by music
To a Contemporary Bunkshooter—here I don’t mind his rambling ‘cause he is kicking some hypocritical ass.
Skyscraper

HANDFULS
Fog
Pool
Choose
Crimson
Troths

WAR POEMS
Iron
Murmurings
Buttons
And they obey
Wars

THE ROAD AND THE END—zilch

FOGS AND FIRES
At a Window
Under a Harvest Moon
Monotone
Two
On the Breakwater
I sang—only the 1st two lines are needed, just great!
Bones
Margaret

SHADOWS
It is much
Harrison Street Court—I live on Harrison street, and I feel it.
Gone—Chick Lorimer, what a gal.

OTHER DAYS
Waiting
Dream Girl—very corny, but nicely put
Old Woman
Under a telephone pole
Languages
The Junkman

Chicago Poems

A reading practice of mine, particular to poetry, is that I write a list of words on the inside cover of the book as I'm reading it. The list is a record of the words that I notice appear in the book multiple times, and is written in the order in which I notice them. These motifs provide a kind of atmospheric reading of the book. Most of the words are usually nouns, and so the list is also a collage of images. This way of reading a collection of poems makes visible the poet's lexicon, and when I return to these books over time, I first read the list, which brings the feeling of the book in its entirety back to me.

My list for Chicago Poems is as follows:

bones
salt
dust
stars
fog
night
smoke
sun
rain
blue
voices
throat
street
lake
wind
silence
steel
blood
remember
river
mist
gray
sea
dawn
day
laughter
death
mouth

___


William Carlos Williams criticized Sandburg for what Williams deemed was a lack of attention to craft. I wonder, though, if this judgment may have been in response to the form of Sandburg's poems, rather than the content. Even if, at times, Sandburg's poetry veers towards a more journalistic style in both form and subject, it is grounded artistically in metaphor and sound.
The specificity and vibrancy of metaphors such as "a pair of fresh lips and a kiss better than all the wild grapes that ever grew in Tuscany" ("The Shovel Man") and "a voice like a north wind blowing over corn stubble in January" ("Fish Crier") are powerful examples of Sandburg's attentiveness to language.

A through-line of Chicago Poems is sound. Many of the poems, regardless of their subject, resonate with street-sounds, night-sounds, and sounds of the natural world. A number of poems specifically relate to music and indicate Sandburg's sentiment towards music as a impetus for both happiness and hope. Three poems of note are "Happiness", "Fellow Citizens", and "Bath."

The narrator in "Happiness" seeks out "professors who teach the meaning of life" and "famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men" in his search for the meaning of happiness. He is given no answer until the poem's culminating lines wherein he comes across "a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their woman and children and a keg of beer and an accordion." That Sandburg places the accordion last in this list, and as the final word of the poem, emphasizes its significance. In "Fellow Citizens", Sandburg writes of the "maker of accordions and guitars" who "not only makes them from start to finish, but plays them after he makes them" and who "had it all over the butter millionaire, Jim Kirch and the mayor when it came to happiness."

"Bath" makes reference to violinist Mischa Elman (1891-1967). It is an Elman concert that prompts the sudden and thorough change in the protagonist's perspective from one of despair to hope. Unlike the other two poems, the central idea of this poem is the amazingly transformative capacity of music. With graceful accuracy, Sandburg delineates his protagonist's transformation before, during, and after the concert.

I was not familiar with Mischa Elman's music, but was compelled by this poem to seek out some of his recordings. You may listen to Mischa Elman play Schubert's "Serenade" at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQw1s6YAdVU&NR=1

An eight-minute black & white Vitaphone film of Elman playing the violin may be found at:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31uJT2IKsR0&feature=related

Jenn

Chicago Poems

Testing, 1, 2... let's see if this works...

For my blog on Chicago Poems, I’ll just comment on a few of the poems that made an impression with me.

1)  Chicago:  I love how this poem refers to the old Chicago, but still makes sense today.  I especially noted the attitude – the poem talks about Chicago being so violent and dirty, but then turns around, “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.”  I don’t know why this really seemed to stand out to me, but I feel like we still have that same pride.  Chicago is a lot better now and we have more to be proud of, but Chicago still has that attitude – so what if the Bears suck, they’re the Bears goddammit.  And yeah, it’s a tough city, but if you don’t like that then it’s YOUR problem.  If you can’t hang, get out of town.  We’re Chicago.

2)  Picnic Boat:  I really enjoyed how visual this poem was.  It’s as if you’re looking at the lake, and as you read the poem, your eyes are adjusting to the darkness, and details begin to fill in.  You see the lights, the boat, and it really transports you.

3)  Happiness:  Everyone in class liked this poem and I can see why.  How true of anywhere and any day it is.  Most of all, this poem is just relatable.  It’s makes me think of stupid corporate buzz words from my previous life, like “work-life balance.”  We should all just read this poem once in a while.  How clever.

4)  Mag:  Wow.  That’s all I wrote next to this poem in my book.  It makes me sad, really, to think this is someone’s true feelings (is it?).  I thought that people who messed up and had kids when they didn’t want kids always ended up not regretting it anyway, once they see their babies and all...  but not this guy apparently.  I can’t really imagine someone this miserable writing the rest of these poems.  I feel really sorry for Mag.  Jeesh.

Overall Chicago Poems is 5 Stars for me.  I’m not a poetry person but this was a nice read.

Brenda