Carl Sandburg on War--National Poetry Month

 

                            Poet of the People Carl Sandburg.

One of my favorite dead White guy poets, Carl Sandburg, defied expectations--Down State Swede, soldier, hobo, Socialist, working reporter with a bad haircut and a cheap suit.  Here are some of his takes on war.

A Million Young Workmen was written in Chicago in response to the vast carnage unfolding in the Great War.   

A Million Young Workmen

    A million young workmen straight and strong     lay stiff on the grass and roads,     And the million are now under soil     and their rottening flesh will in the years     feed roots of blood-red roses.     Yes, this million of young workmen     slaughtered one another and never saw     their red hands.     And oh, it would have been a great job     of killing and a new and beautiful thing     under the sun if the million knew     why they hacked and tore each other to death.     The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar—     they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars,     and they have their women and roses for ease,     and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast,     new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses     reading the news of war.     I dreamed a million ghosts of the young workmen     rose in their shirts all soaked in crimson … and yelled:     God damn the grinning kings,     God damn the kaiser and the czar.

--Carl Sandburg

Grass

    
    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.

--Carl Sandburg

Excerpt from The People, Yes

    The little girl saw her first troop parade and asked,
    'What are those?'
    'Soldiers.'
    'What are soldiers?'
    'They are for war. They fight and each tries to kill as many of the other side as he can.'
    The girl held still and studied.
    'Do you know . . . I know something?'
    'Yes, what is it you know?'
    'Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.'

--Carl Sandburg