Carl Sandburg is an interesting character, like so many good poets. He spent his formative years schooling, traveling and living the life of a hobo (yes) - finally enlisting in the Army during the Spanish American War and doing a stint in Puerto Rico (he didn't fight). During this period, Sandburg formed the political and social views that would affect his writing in the future.
With hundreds of published poems, Sandburg embarked on a project - to write a childrens biography of Abraham Lincoln. He ended up with a critically acclaimed 2-Volume Adult Biography of Lincoln, which won him a Pulitzer Prize and gave him his first financial success as a writer.
Eventually Sandburg did win a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry in 1951.
Enjoy this Poem which reflects his cynical views on War. It's a beauty:
Grass
by Carl Sandburg
PILE the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
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