The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg

My standard poetry review goes something like this:
It was poetry and I'm not qualified to judge poetry. I loved some of it, hated some of it, most was just, meh. But this is Sandburg and he deserves a better effort. One would not give such a review to Whitman nor Eliot nor Dickinson, nor Longfellow and Frost, and, most certainly, not to Poe.

Just as music is the artistic expression of mathematics, so poetry is comprised of the music of words. Poetry is meant to be heard, if only in the reader's own mind. But without voice, poetry loses meaning. Without meaning, poetry loses voice.

But there was so MUCH poetry in this work, almost 800 pages of it, maybe that voice was lost in sheer volume. Sandburg is a master poet; I doubt many would show more disagree. Some of the offerings surprised me -- lists of wise sayings one after the other -- lists foreign students make trying to understand the vagaries of American colloquial language. But nothing made them poetry. Nothing seemed to connect the elements of the lists. But there were only a few of these.

Much of the poetry was warm and fun and comfortable and has a voice that spoke to the heart of a generation, the one of my grandparents and parents. Forest Gump, the film, was warm and fun and comfortable and has a voice that spoke to the heart of a generation, mine. Forest Gump got his Oscar and Sandburg his Pulitzer.

Some of the poems were delightfully funny, so funny I read them aloud to my husband. A few had imagery so magical I read them aloud to myself. Some clearly evoked a sense of the history of the time at which the poem was written.

Yet, reading became drudgery. With only 70 pages left, I had to force myself just to read even 4 pages at a time. But 70 pages from the end I couldn't bring myself to just stop and leave the volume unfinished -- not 70 out of almost 800 pages. But it was the caronavirus novel pandemic of 2020 that enabled me to finish the tome. Not because I got sick but because the libraries closed and I got to keep the book for an additional 2 months and I needed 6 weeks of those added 2 months to finish. But finish I did! show less

This was a magnificent collection of poems. Going in blind, I was so surprised and impressed by the amount of variety, literary allusions, imagery, and style that Sandburg demonstrated, time and time again, through his work. There are a few poems that miss, but in such a large and excellent collection there is bound to be that. Overall, this was wonderful and I recommend it to anyone interested in poetry or American literature. It is a treat!

4.75 stars!

Being familiar only with a few pieces, there is a lot to explore here. I'm finding the shorter poems especially lovely.

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