Since we are reading poems in Pod four right now, I thought I would make a post describing one of the new poets I have discovered this week. Carl Sandburg has three poems in our literature book that we had a choice of reading, and I am glad that I chose to read his work. The three poems I read from him were "Chicago", "Fog", and "Grass", Each of them have a similar theme to one another in that each of them are personified to either a human or an animal.
Each of the poems are entertaining are descriptive. "Chicago" and "Grass" are both given human characteristics to describe their roles and what they offer to the world. While "Fog" is given personalities of a cat instead of a person. Even though two of the three poems are really short, the way they are described explains a lot more than what is written. I just think the way the stories were written were really unique and something different from the usual writing styles. Out of the three poems from Sandburg, my favorite was "Fog". I just thought his description of fog compared to a cat made a lot of since and I could see how he made his comparisons. What was your favorite out of the three poems from Sandburg?
This was the first time that I had read Sandburg and I also really enjoyed his poems. It was interesting how he personified the subjects in each of these poems and he did it in different ways in each poem. I think that Chicago was my favorite of the three because of how he incorporated all that encompasses the city in it.
ReplyDeleteThis was also my first time reading Sandburg. I have to say I loved "Chicago". First of all the cool effect of him personifying an entire city was that I got to see this snapshot of what Chicago was during the time he wrote the poem. Secondly, the way he took something so incredibly large and squished and squeezed and compacted it into a single "person" through the use of personification is, frankly, explosive. I love it. How did you manage to do that Carl? Probably because your name is Carl. No one ever expects 45-65 year old working class Carl to produce something like this. I've never heard a person say, "You know, that Carl is really insightful. He was just saying the other day…" You go, Carl. Keep making other Carls out there achieve, unsuspecting as we are. You go.
ReplyDeleteYou know I don't read the blogs until I grade them, so I didn't notice that you had included a picture of the fog as I did on the Pods of Thought blog. I really like that short poem. Another student had written in a different post in another spot that writing so many words about a short poem is difficult, but I think that a poem should do just that---make one think about the subject, reflect upon it, relate it to one's life. For such a short poem, there are many words that I can string together that convey my feelings about "Fog" and fog. Julie - I used "Chicago" in my ENGL 112 class on Monday evening. Sandburg's use of personification is gripping in his poetry. How *does* he do that?
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