The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg: Revised and Expanded Edition [Hardcover]

Carl Sandburg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 1970

The definitive edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection. “A marvelous prosody, a perfect ear for the beautiful potentials of common speech, something he learned from folk song, but mostly he learned from just listening” (Kenneth Rexroth).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

CARL SANDBURG (1878-1967) was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize, first in 1940 for his biography of Abraham Lincoln and again in 1951 for Complete Poems. Before becoming known as a poet, he worked as a milkman, an ice harvester, a dishwasher, a salesman, a fireman, and a journalist. Among his classics are the Rootabaga Stories, which he wrote for his young daughters at the beginning of his long and distinguished literary career.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 832 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Revised edition (October 14, 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151207739
• ISBN-13: 978-0151207732
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-deserving of a Pulitzer Prize!, May 24, 2001

By 

ROGER L. FOREMAN (Bath, Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg: Revised and Expanded Edition (Hardcover)

A magnificent collections by one of the most diverse and gifted minds in American literary history. As a high school English teacher, I often teach the "dark" Sandburg: "Killers," "Grass," "Iron," and other pessimistic works by Sandburg. This volume takes that pessimism and puts it into a much more realistic context, dealing with World War I, the Great Depression, and an era of American History to which few of us today can relate. Sandburg's poetry is virtually prose in sections, reading very fluidly. It is fascinating to watch his evolution as a writer and as a man throughout the poems he wrote. I rarely sit and just read poetry, but I recommend this volume to my students--and to anyone else reading/listening--for a couple of hours when a novel just doesn't seem right. Some of it is dark, depressing, and mildly disturbing, but he sheds a ray of light often enough to keep one reading. There's something in Sandburg's work for everyone!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great compilation of great poetry, March 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg: Revised and Expanded Edition (Hardcover)

I started looking into Sandburg for a school project, but then i was hooked. I had to take this book from the library countless times, because i couldnt get enough of it. You are able to see many sides of Sandbug, and are able to get a hold of what his views are. Overall, it is on of the best books of poetry by any author. Those from the Midwest can really appreciate his descriptions of the region.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry Of A Fierce But Gentle Soul, September 20, 2005

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (Hardcover)

Fifty years ago Carl Sandburg's poetry could be found in nearly every library, classroom and (in some form) home in America, but in the hurried twenty-first century, where too much bad poetry has spoiled whole living generations on the art, he is all-but lost to our social consciousness. This poet of freedom (even his poems disobey every respected rule of form) penned verses that celebrated the American spirit as no other writer had since Walt Whitman. If presented with a sampling of his most famous lines, the average American would probably light up and say, "Oh, yeah! Okay, I've heard that one." Reading the collected works of this Midwesterner is full of such moments of re-discovery. All of Sandburg's published books are here, putting his many hundreds of poems on display. His finest work, the controversial, slow-moving, stream of consciousness piece "The People, Yes" alone makes this anthology a gift to modern readers, but many other unexpected gems await to delight, challenge, inform, or taunt with sheer irony. Though some of these poems date back nearly a century, at no time does Sandburg ever sound anything but cutting-edge and post-modern. He is one of the greats for all ages of man.