Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg is a poet who writes poems with some repeating lines and graphic details. His poems are usually about people doing normal everyday things that we would do. His poems from what I know so far are about life and the many things that can happen in life that can change our lives for better or worst. He shows the strength, courage, and vulnerability of the human by writing about a regular event that to would not be so significant to us, but to someone else it could mean everything to them. His poems are usually mysterious and confusing because you don't know exactly what he is talking about which leads you to draw and make your own conclusions after you have read his work.

In his poem 'In a Breath" we see a normal day in the lives of people in a town. They are walking around and some are watching a movie about a shark that gets killed by a human who is brave enough to confront the shark. This poem to me is about how someones life can be ended in a simple breath without much effort. This poem shows how two different things can be happening at the same moment and we would not know because it doesn't affect us at all.

His next poem "The Bath" is about a man who once did not care about life, but after going to a Mischa Elman concert, he cares about life and loves everything about it. The poem shows how one little event can be a life changing event in someones life for their own personal good. The man in this poem sees life simply as flesh on bones with no type of meaning to it. This poem shows how an event can open your eyes up to the world and show you that there is more to life than simply your own personal views. Another key point in this poem is music, after hearing the concert the man sees the world differently, this shows that music can be a life saving instrument rather than just some form of entertainment. This shows that everyone will always have different opinions, but that these opinions can be changed if the right attention is given to those opinions.

I believe that Sandburg writes poetry about the many different things in life that can happen to us whether we think about it or not. He writes to show how something can happen in someones life and not affect us, but affect the other person drastically. His poems usually leave you rereading what you just read and thinking about what he is really trying to convey in his poetry. His poetry can be interpreted in many different ways and not everyone will have the same opinion about what they just read. His writing leaves you free to think what you want and let you connect his writing to your life in whatever way you want to. I feel that he wrote his poetry without any specific endings so that you can make up your own story and draw your own conclusions.