Carl Sandburg, poet of the people, remains very relevant today
Published: Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, January 22, 2010 at 6:26 p.m.
Taking a nippy morning stroll at the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site, it's simple to see why the famed poet sought this refuge. It's clear no more tranquil spot could be found for a writer.
In the fall, I visited this pastoral site as a participant in the Experience Your Parks program. The staff's challenges were among many topics discussed. Though 90,000 people like me enjoyed the trails last year, this is not simply a place to hike: Part of the park's mission is keeping Sandburg's work alive.
That poses the question: Is Carl Sandburg relevant? Let's take a brief look at his slice of the American experience.
With immigration a current topic of discussion, Sandburg's childhood is an example to study. He was a first-generation American, the child of Swedish immigrants. His father came here to the land of opportunity. His 34-year railroad career consisted of physical labor for 10 hours a day, six days a week. (Years later, living in Flat Rock, Sandburg wrote of his boyhood in his autobiography "Always the Young Strangers.")
Carl was aware of his different speech and clothing, and his family's poverty. He changed his names from Sandberg to Sandburg and from Carl to Charles. At the end of eighth grade, he left public school. His family could not afford for both he and his sister to finish high school. He took several jobs to support his family. Carl lived the hobo experience for a time, riding the rails and observing the desperation of the unemployed.
He expressed it well in the wrenching lines of the poem "Mag":
I wish to God I never saw you Mag.
I wish to God the kids had never come.
Sandburg's poetry raised the public's consciousness about child labor conditions before the passage of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. His life experiences contributed to his "Chicago Poems," in which he lamented stolen childhoods.
Of my city the worst that men will ever say is this:
You took little children away from the sun and the dew,
And the glimmers that played in the grass under the great sky,
And the reckless rain; you put them between walls
To work, broken and smothered, for bread and wages
Having just celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day last week, we might take a second look at Sandburg's work in race relations. From Penelope Niven's biography, we learn Sandburg's first publication of prose was "The Chicago Race Riots" in July 1919. The pamphlet was a collection of newspaper articles by Sandburg. Thirty-eight people died in the Chicago riots: 15 white and 23 black. It was an escalation of violence after the tragic drowning of 17-year-old black youth Eugene Williams.
Sandburg's in-depth reporting earned both him and the "Chicago Daily News" commendations from the Chicago Commission on Race Relations. The small volume was published again in 1969 after Martin Luther King's assassination. Ralph McGill wrote the preface, asking how much did we learn in 50 years? Not much was his reply. With the drastic increase in death threats against our current President this past year, we need to keep asking that same question today.
In 1965, the NAACP gave Sandburg a life membership, deeming him a "major prophet of Civil Rights." Sandburg biographer Penelope Niven says this was the only award that he kept displayed at his Flat Rock home.
Sandburg was also a musician. He collected American folk songs in his travels across the country, and publishing them in "The American Songbag" in 1927. He was a beloved performer in his day, mixing poetry, monologues and music.
President Abraham Lincoln, the author of "with malice towards none, with charity for all" took hold of Carl Sandburg and would not let him go. Sandburg's major life work was the multi-volume biography of Lincoln. The volume "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years", earned him a Pulitzer Prize in history.
Carl Sandburg lived through troublesome times and his life experiences reflected our American history. He lived the immigrant experience to become a celebrity, lavished with such awards as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was accomplished in the fields of poetry, history, biography, fiction and music. Though his fame garnered him a national memorial service at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, he was simply known as the people's poet.
Sandburg's family, the National Park Service and our supportive community had the foresight to make his Flat Rock home a lasting legacy. What is done here today with the K-12 curriculum on American history and Sandburg's life story, and the annual middle school poetry writing contest is a tribute to Sandburg and an excellent learning experience. But it is a pity there is no rotating exhibit space to bring to the public the thousands of items left by the Sandburg family. At present, these items remain hidden from visitors in temperature-controlled storage.
Is Carl Sandburg relevant? In this day of unemployment, with our fragile economy, conflict among our citizens, the bitter immigration and health care debates, Sandburg's inclusive message and love of the common man still rings true.
Is Sandburg relevant? The answer is yes, maybe more so than ever.
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