Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
The Skyscraper Loves Night
ONE by one lights of a skyscraper fling their checkering cross work on the velvetgown of night.I believe the skyscraper loves night as a woman and..
© Carl Sandburg
The Sins Of Kalamazoo
THE SINS of Kalamazoo are neither scarlet nor crimson.The sins of Kalamazoo are a convict gray, a dishwater drab.And the people who sin the sins of..
© Carl Sandburg
The Shovel Man
On the streetSlung on his shoulder is a handle half way across,Tied in a big knot on the scoop of cast ironAre the overalls faded from sun and rain..
© Carl Sandburg
The Sea Hold
THE SEA is large.The sea hold on a leg of land in the Chesapeake hugs an early sunset and a lastmorning star over the oyster beds and the late clam..
© Carl Sandburg
The Road And The End
I shall foot itDown the roadway in the dusk,Where shapes of hunger wanderAnd the fugitives of pain go by.I shall foot itIn the silence of the..
© Carl Sandburg
The Right To Grief
To Certain Poets About to DieTake your fill of intimate remorse, perfumed sorrow,Over the dead child of a millionaire,And the pity of Death refusing..
© Carl Sandburg
The Red Son
I love your faces I saw the many yearsI drank your milk and filled my mouthWith your home talk, slept in your houseAnd was one of you.But a fire..
© Carl Sandburg
The Plowboy
AFTER the last red sunset glimmer,Black on the line of a low hill rise,Formed into moving shadows, I sawA plowboy and two horses lined against the..
© Carl Sandburg
The People, Yes
Lincoln?He was a mystery in smoke and flagsSaying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags,Yes to the paradoxes of democracy,Yes to the hopes of..
© Carl Sandburg
The Noon Hour
She sits in the dust at the wallsAnd makes cigars,Bending at the benchWith fingers wage-anxious,Changing her sweat for the day’s pay.Now the noon..
© Carl Sandburg
The Mist
I am the mist, the impalpable mist,Back of the thing you seek.My arms are long,Long as the reach of time and space.Some toil and toil..
© Carl Sandburg
The Mayor Of Gary
I asked the mayor of Gary about the 12-hour day and the 7-day week.And the mayor of Gary answered more workmen steal time on the job in Garythan any..
© Carl Sandburg
The Long Shadow of Lincoln: A Litany
(We can succeed only by concert. . . . The dogmas of the quiet past areinadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty..
© Carl Sandburg
The Liars
(March, 1919)A LIAR goes in fine clothes.A liar goes in rags.A liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.A liar is a liar and lives on the lies he tells..
© Carl Sandburg
The Lawyers Know Too Much
The lawyers, Bob, know too much.They are chums of the books of old John Marshall.They know it all, what a dead hand wrote,A stiff dead hand and its..
© Carl Sandburg
The Junk Man
I am glad God saw DeathAnd gave Death a job taking care of all who are tired of living:When all the wheels in a clock are worn and slow and the..
© Carl Sandburg
The Has-Been
A stone face higher than six horses stood five thousand years gazing at the worldseeming to clutch a secret.A boy passes and throws a niggerhead that..
© Carl Sandburg
The Harbor
Passing through huddled and ugly wallsBy doorways where womenLooked from their hunger-deep eyes,Haunted with shadows of hunger-hands,Out from the..
© Carl Sandburg
The Hangman At Home
What does a hangman think aboutWhen he goes home at night from work?When he sits down with his wife andChildren for a cup of coffee and aPlate of ham..
© Carl Sandburg
The Hammer
I have seenThe old gods goAnd the new gods come.Day by dayAnd year by yearThe idols fallAnd the idols rise.TodayI worship the hammer.
© Carl Sandburg
The Great Hunt
I cannot tell you now;When the wind’s drive and whirlBlow me along no longer,And the wind’s a whisper at last—Maybe I’ll tell you then—some other..
© Carl Sandburg
The Four Brothers
MAKE war songs out of these;Make chants that repeat and weave.Make rhythms up to the ragtime chatter of the machine guns;Make slow-booming psalms up..
© Carl Sandburg
The Answer
You have spoken the answer.A child searches far sometimesInto the red dustOn a dark rose leafAnd so you have gone farFor the answer is:Silence.In the..
© Carl Sandburg
Testimony Regarding A Ghost
THE ROSES slanted crimson sobsOn the night sky hair of the women,And the long light-fingered menSpoke to the dark-haired women,'Nothing lovelier..
© Carl Sandburg
Testament
I GIVE the undertakers permission to haul my bodyto the graveyard and to lay away all, the head, thefeet, the hands, all: I know there is something..
© Carl Sandburg