''Chicago Poems'' is a 1916 collection of poetry by
Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...
, his first by a mainstream publisher.
Inspiration, publication, and reception
Sandburg moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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in 1912 after living in Milwaukee, where he had served as secretary to
Emil Seidel
Emil Seidel (December 13, 1864 – June 24, 1947) was a prominent German-American politician. Seidel was the mayor of Milwaukee from 1910 to 1912. The first Socialist mayor of a major city in the United States, Seidel became the Vice Presidential ...
, Milwaukee's Socialist mayor.
Harriet Monroe, a fellow resident of Chicago, had recently founded the magazine ''
Poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
'' at around this time. Monroe liked and encouraged Sandburg's plain-speaking free verse style, strongly reminiscent of
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
.
Sandburg sent his manuscript to
Alfred Harcourt, then a junior-ranking editor at
Henry Holt. Facing opposition from above, Harcourt removed and censored—with Sandburg's co-operation—the harsher poems. For example, the direct criticism of "
Billy Sunday
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.
Bo ...
" by name, previously published in ''
The Masses
''The Masses'' was a graphically innovative magazine of socialist politics published monthly in the United States from 1911 until 1917, when federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription. It was ...
'' and ''
International Socialist Review'', was replaced with the more tepid and anonymous "To a Contemporary Bunkshooter".
''Chicago Poems'' established Sandburg as a major figure in contemporary literature.
''Chicago Poems'', and its follow-up volumes of verse, ''Cornhuskers'' (1918) and ''Smoke and Steel'' (1920) represent Sandburg's attempts to found an American version of social realism, writing expansive verse in praise of American agriculture and industry.
Poems included
* "
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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"
* "
Fog"
* "Happiness"
Further reading
*
*
*
References
External links
*
''Chicago Poems'' at Bartleby
{{Carl Sandburg
1916 poetry books
American poetry collections
Chicago in fiction
Poetry by Carl Sandburg
Henry Holt and Company books