Carl Sandburg : An American Poet

Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman had very similar lives. They both came from working class families and neither one of them went to high school or graduated college. They learned from watching people and by reading books on their own. They both had a certain sense for the world that made them able to see what was going on around them and grasp its significance. Although Whitman was born sixty years before Sandburg there were still a lot of the same things happening in America and they both picked up on one important factor of the time, that of the average working class man. Whitman and Sandburg admired the working class man for all of his hard work and they wrote a lot about this

Born in Senegal around 1753, Phillis Wheatley became an important American poetic figure. At the age of 8, she was kidnapped and brought to Boston on a slave ship and upon her arrival to Boston, she was quickly sold to John Wheatley (Bio). Under her new family, Phillis adopted the master’s last name, taken under the wife’s wing, and showed her deep intelligence. Even though suffering from poor health, Phillis’s intelligence did not go unnoticed; she received lessons in theology, English, Latin and Greek. Being a slave did not stop Phillis from learning and experiencing her life, she participated in the master’s family events and eventually became a family member. The irony in this situation is

F Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. Although his last finished work was more than 60 years ago, today they are enjoyed with more enthusiasm and acclaim than they were when they were written. His works are cited as an influence for many other authors. Fitzgerald saw his writing as a reflection of his own life. His works are closely based on his experiences at Princeton, in World War 1 and his love life. Although he was not overly popular at the time of his death, today, he is regarded as one of the best authors of the modern era.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.

When one writes, whether it is poetry, essays, or literature their identity can be constituted through their work. However, at times certain barriers prevent writers from being widely accepted. These barriers can range from race to gender to class, and affect the consideration of these works as significant. Two writers that struggled to pass these barriers were Phillis Wheatley, an African American slave, and Abigail Adams, the wife of founding father John Adams. The kinds of obstacles they faced constituted their rhetorical strategies and diction.

The fireside poets were popular at a time when the United States was a new nation, suffering pressure from outside governments as well as growing pains of its own. Historical events such as the War of 1812 threatened to overwhelm the young democracy. At the same time, there was the beginning of the push for westward expansion, and the beginnings of the schism over slavery which would culminate in the Civil War. The fireside poets represented a movement to involve the reader in events of the current day through literature. Most of them had causes about which they were passionate, and they incorporated this into their writing, inviting readers to consider highly charged issues such as abolition, workers’ rights, and immigration on a level that was more personal than had previously been done. Literature has frequently been reflective of the social and political climate in which it is written. The fireside poets were one of the first groups to take their views to a more real-world level, in founding magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly (John Greenleaf Whittier), supporting public projects such as Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (William Cullen Bryant), and even founding a political party and running for Congress (John Greenleaf Whittier). The lead-up to the Civil War was also weighing on the minds of many, which prompted Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write “Paul Revere’s Ride”, an encouragement to a young country facing a serious conflict. Far from

One such author, poet Langston Hughes, wrote “Let America Be America Again.” Hughes is known for his portrayal of the African American life in America during the early to mid 1900’s. Hughes was born in 1902 in Missouri where his parents divorced when he was a young child. He was raised by his grandmother until his teenage years before he moved to live with his mother and her new husband. He was a college graduate from Lincoln University and was an award winning novelist. Another author, Edward McClelland, we don’t learn as much about. We know he grew up in an auto making town in the 1970s, a time during which middle-class America was strong and prosperous. McClelland tells us his ideology through personal experience, examples, and the use of some statistics. With our last author, meet D. Watkins, a college professor who has a master’s degree in education from John Hopkins University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Baltimore. (3) We

John Adams, Abigail Adams, and Anne Bradstreet were colonial Americans who contributed greatly to the nation. As each of them entered into a new life, they faced numerous challenging trials. Even though their difficulties were burdensome, these individuals overcame their circumstances to achieve great things. Their literary works are proof of the lives they lead and the goals they accomplished. Despite facing the challenges of a new government, an oppressive culture, and a strange land, Mr. Adams, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Bradstreet were each able to overcome their hardships, document their experiences, and ultimately contribute to society.

The Catcher in the Rye and Dead Poets Society are very similar stories. Both deal with the coming of age in the lives of prestigious young men. These two stories also deal with the conformity of these young men in their transition from private boys school to the real world. There are two young men from each of the stories whose lives are alike yet different in some ways.

When the topic of which African American writes are my favorite, the first name that comes to mind is Frederick Douglass. After escaping from slavery, he later became a leader of the abolitionist movement while gaining notes for his impressive rhetoric and perceptive antislavery writing, my favorite being A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. After its release It was so desirable that it and was reprinted numerous times, later to be translated in French and Dutch, then widely distributed throughout Europe. Douglass’ speeches may have also contributed to his success because his British friends admired enough that they purchased his freedom from his owner in 1847, thus allowing him to return to the United States

Samuel L. Clemens, better known for his novelist title Mark Twain, wrote an intuitive short story in 1905 as a response to the Spanish-American and Philippine-American War. He began his writing career at the age of eighteen until the commence of the Civil War; in which he then volunteered to join the war. Within two weeks he quit and set off for a new conquest much in which resembled soul searching. Expediting to move across the country he crossed paths with natives and became a familiar writer moving to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Twain’s form of writing cultivated into a fervent style during his life in Hartford yet took an aberrant turn reaching the nineteen hundred. He began to pivot around dark writings that focused on the inner workings

A great Italian poet named Dante Alighieri once said, “Nature is the art of God.” Nature has dominated earth since the very beginning. When all perishes, nature still remains. This is seen in the poem called “Grass” by Carl Sandburg which is a free verse poem that emphasizes war and the immortality of nature. Throughout, the entire poem, the speaker remains unsympathetic towards the deaths caused by humanity because it is a constant cycle. Sandburg uses personification, allusions, and free verse with an emphasis on the imperative tense to express nature as a divine being, covering up the casualties of human intervention.

While living on a family farm and lack of school teaching, his struggles and opinions. within his writings would label him as one the most talented and recognized authors in America. The early life

     Carl Sandburg may be one of our most influential poets in American history, he knew the American working man and his necessities. Sandburg used his poetry to explicate to the economy how life is, can, and could be. Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois January 6, 1878 to Swedish immigrant parents with the names of August and Clara Johnson. His family was extremely poor. Carl left school at the age of thirteen to work odd jobs from bricklaying to dish washing to earn money to support the family. At seventeen, he left home to travel to Kansas as a hobo, there he turned to the army for help. He served eight months in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American war.

James Baldwin is an exceptionally writer who tested the water with writing. He was a writer who was not afraid to talk about new things that most writers of his time would not do. Most people did not know that Baldwin was actually a part of the civil rights movement. He was a writer who tried to write out and explain to the black experience to the white people. Even though he was not talking about as much as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, he was a big part of the civil rights movement. As you read this essay you will see how Baldwin became the writer that he is known to be today and also why he wrote, also learn about how he opened the door to thing that most writers of his time would not talk about.