“The road has come to an end for Carl Sandburg, my friend and the good companion of millions whose own life journeys have been enabled by his poetry. But there is no end to the legacy he leaves us. Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America. We knew and cherished him as the bard of democracy, the echo of the people, our conscience and chronicler of truth, and beauty, and purpose. Carl Sandburg needs no epitaph. It is written for all time in the fields, the cities, the face and heart of the land he loved and the people he celebrated and inspired. With the world, we mourn his passing. It is our pride and fortune as Americans that we will always hear Carl Sandburg's voice within ourselves; for he gave us the truest and most enduring vision of our own greatness.”
President Lyndon Baines Johnson who arrived unannounced at the memorial service for Carl Sandburg at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, September, 1967.
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Visionary
Carl Sandburg spent his life learning and writing about America. From his youth, born of immigrant parents, Sandburg yearned to understand his country. He captured important events of the 20th century, and with his pencil and typewriter, recast those events with verbs quivering and nouns reverberating for the public’s eyes and ears. In his biography of Carl Sandburg, Harry Golden said this about his good friend, “As the idea of presenting Carl Sandburg on the American scene germinated in my mind, I realized that all I would have to do was write a biographical sketch of the United States of America through the past half century and use Carl Sandburg as a reference point.”
Sandburg saw first-hand how industrial society could cause the erosion of human dignity. He felt that the natural order of human compassion and love was overlooked when the need for food, clothing and shelter was greater. In the era that predated legislation to control monopolies, Sandburg witnessed the negative impact of excessive greed and power and the plight of the blue-collar worker. His poems Mag and Anna Imroth, and The Right to Grief, all from Sandburg’s Chicago Poems, speak of these things.
Mag (excerpt)
…I wish the kids had never come
And rent and coal and clothes to pay for
And a grocery man calling for cash,
Every day cash for beans and prunes.
I wish to God I never saw you, Mag.
I wish to God the kids had never come.
Anna Imroth
Cross the hands over the breast here-so.
Straighten the legs a little more-so.
And call for the wagon to come and take her home.
Her mother will cry some and so will her sisters and brothers.
But all of the others got down and they were safe and this
is the only one of the factory girls who wasn’t lucky
in making the jump when the fire broke.
It is the hand of God and the lack of fire escapes.
The Right to Grief (excerpt)
To Certain Poets About to Die
The hunky and his wife and the kids
Cry over the pinched face almost at peace in the white box.
They remember it was scrawny and ran up high doctor bills.
They are glad it is gone for the rest of the family now will have more
to eat and wear.
A visionary on issues of labor, Sandburg wrote as early as 1907: “Labor is beginning to realize its power. We no longer beg, we demand old-age pensions; we demand a minimum wage; we demand industrial accident insurance; we demand unemployment insurance; and we demand the eight-hour day which must become the basic law of the land.” (Golden, p. 117)
Carl Sandburg saw how poetry and prose could be used to improve conditions of the working people, extend civil liberties to all, have political clout, and give hope and joy to the citizenry. He aimed to use his gifts for the betterment of humankind, as seen in his poem, Prayers of Steel:
Prayers of Steel
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.
Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into
white stars.
Carl Sandburg, Cornhuskers, 1918
Being a catalyst for social change, the ailments of an enlightening society, and criticism for using his gifts in this way was a burden. Carl Sandburg had the strength of conviction to continue. He saw industrial society, with all its vices, but he also saw its brighter side, and the ability of the American people to create, to evolve, and to laugh.
According to Harry Golden, “He (Sandburg) has a profound understanding of political undercurrents and social and cultural phenomena.” Sandburg was always an independent voter, never officially belonging to a political party after his early associations with the Social-Democratic Party of Wisconsin at the turn of the 20th century. He did campaign for candidates whom he believed could move social programs ahead: Emil Seidel, Eugene Debs, Adlai Stevenson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. It is believed that his appearance on a late night radio broadcast on the eve of the 1940 election clinched votes of over two million independent voters for Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
Sandburg was forward looking. He saw how this family of humanity had the ability and strength to become greater. Sandburg acknowledged there were obstacles, but believed the human spirit would prevail; he had a hope and optimism in the people that did not waiver.
The belief in the infinite capacity of people to do good and to be good was evident in The Family of Man, a photographic essay that Sandburg and his brother-in-law, Edward Steichen developed. The exhibit opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1955 and the accompanying catalog was widely seen. It was a testament to Sandburg’s and Steichen’s long-held belief in the universal oneness of humankind and a love and faith in humanity. This view bound the two together as kindred spirits throughout their lifetimes.