Chicago Poems [Paperback]

Carl Sandburg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2004

1916. Sandburg, Pulitzer Prize winning poet, was virtually unknown to the literary world when, in 1914, a group of his poems appeared in the nationally circulated Poetry magazine. His work found beauty and glory in the simple America that surrounded him: the farms, industry, landscape, culture, and most importantly, the American people. Chicago Poems was Sandburg's first published book of poems. Among the dozens of poems in this collection are such well-known verses as Chicago, Fog, To a Contemporary Bunkshooter, Who Am I? and Under the Harvest Moon as well as many others. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

All Day Long
Among The Red Guns
And They Obey
Anna Imroth
The Answer
At A Window
Aztec
Aztec Mask
Back Yard
Bath
Between Two Hills
Blacklisted
'boes
Bones
Broadway
Bronzes: 1
Bronzes: 2
Buttons
Chamfort
Chicago
Child
Child Moon
Child Of The Romans
Choices
Choose
Clark Street Bridge
A Coin
Crimson
Cripple
Cumulatives
Docks
Dream Girl
Dreams In The Dusk
Dunes
Dynamiter
Fellow Citizens
A Fence
Fight
Fish Crier
Flux
Fog
Follies
From The Shore
Gone
Government
Graceland
Graves
The Great Hunt
Gypsy
Halsted Street Car
Happiness
The Harbor
Harrison Street Court
The Has-been
Hydrangeas
I Am The People, The Mob
I Sang
Ice Handler
In A Back Alley
In A Breath; To The Williamson Brothers
Iron
It Is Much
Jack
Jan Kubelik
Jaws
Joy
June
Jungheimer's
The Junk Man
Killers (1)
Kin
Languages
Last Answers
Letters To Dead Imagists
Limited
Losses
Lost
Mag
Mamie
Margaret
Mask
Masses
Mill-doors
The Mist
Momus
Monotone
Muckers
Murmurings In A Field Hospital
Nigger
Nocturne In A Deserted Brickyard
Noon Hour
Old Woman
On The Breakwater
On The Way
Onion Days
Our Prayer Of Thanks
Pals
Passers-by
Pearl Fog
Personality
Picnic Boat
Plowboy
Poems Done On A Late Night Car: 1. Chickens
Poems Done On A Late Night Car: 2. Used Up
Poems Done On A Late Night Car: 3. Home
Pool
Poppies
Population Drifts
Ready To Kill
The Red Son
The Right To Grief; To Certain Poets About To Die
The Road And The End
Salvage
Sheep
Shirt (1)
The Shovel Man
Silver Nails
Sketch
Skyscraper
Soiled Dove
A Sphinx
Statistics
Style
Subway
A Teamster's Farewell
Theme In Yellow
They Will Say
To A Contemporary Bunkshooter
To A Dead Man
To Beachey, 1912
To Certain Journeymen
Trafficker
Troths
Two
Two Neighbors
Under
Under A Hat Rim
Under A Telephone Pole
Under The Harvest Moon
Uplands In May
Waiting
The Walking Man Of Rodin
Wars
White Shoulders
Whitelight
Who Am I?
Window
Working Girls
Young Sea
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417938293
• ISBN-13: 978-1417938292
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,567,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hey There You Out There, Read This, May 31, 2000

By 

Bernard M. Patten "Book worm" (Seabrook, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chicago Poems (Prairie State Books) (Paperback)

A recent death in the family prompted me to examine my life to see what I should be doing differently. The answer, one of them anyway, was I should be reading more poetry. So I got this little gem of a book from Amazon and read it through. Carl Sandburg was a master and one of the old time American poets who spoke simply and directly so that each of us could clearly understand. Fog is a typical example: The fog comes in on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. Wow! If that sounds like great writing it is because it is. I wish I could write a poem like that and I wish Chicago Poems would out sell my own poem book because it has so much more to offer.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Owe It To Yourself ..., August 31, 2000

By 

Jane (Tel-Aviv, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chicago Poems (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

When such a quantity of beautiful and profound poems comes along at such a ludicrously low price, you owe it to yourself to get it. Carry this book in your work bag, take it on the bus, and get a daily dose of Carl Sandburg, the Lowry of poetry, with his word-paintings of factories, immigrants, war, socialism, prostitution and so on. Buy it for a friend or donate it to a fellow passenger! Wonderful ...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "humming and thrumming", July 22, 2001

By 

Cipriano "www.bookpuddle.blogspot.com" (Planet Claire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chicago Poems (Prairie State Books) (Paperback)

In my reading of poetry I have developed a peculiar habit. In the Table Of Contents I pencil in an asterisk before the titles of poems that I especially enjoyed. I find that this helps me to quickly relocate special poems later when I want to re-read them. In my copy of Sandburg's "Chicago Poems" there are many asterisks. I think that one of the things that appeal to me about these particular series of poems is their "urbanity". As the title suggests, these are often poems about "city"... about the "cosmopolis". Sandburg had a way of animating concrete and asphalt, and making us aware of the inner life of things that millions of us urbanites walk past each day. In one of my favorites entitled "Skyscraper" he says "It is the men and women, boys and girls so poured in and out all day that give the building a soul of dreams and thoughts and memories." And it ends beautifully with "By night the skyscraper looms in the smoke and the stars and has a soul." It is as though if any of Sandburg's Chicago Poems were to just remain silent for a moment, we would hear the faint night-time "humming and thrumming" of "a copper wire slung in the air." (cf. his Under A Telephone Pole).

He writes with a solemnity that avoids being morose, which is refreshing. But take note... "you will be thwarted every time, you try to catch a Sandburg rhyme." (they never rhyme). As for metre, his poems are in a free-verse very much reminiscent of Walt Whitman. The perfect poetry to read while feeding the pigeons, or otherwise commuting to and from the park.