 |
(no category)
|
|
Who put up that cage?Who hung it up with bars, doors?Why do those on the inside want to get out?Why do those outside want to get in?What is this crying inside and out all the time?What is this endless, useless beating of baffled wings at these bars, doors, this cage?
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
|
Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
|
A baby is Gods opinion that life should go on.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
|
If she America forgets where she came from, if the people lose sight of what brought them along, if she listens to the deniers and mockers, then will begin the rot and dissolution.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
|
I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
|
The republic is a dream.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
|
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me workI am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at GettysburgAnd 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
|
|
|
Sometime theyll give a war and nobody will come.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Action(s)
|
|
|
The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Baby, Babies
|
|
|
A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
City Life, Cities
|
|
|
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
-Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems (1916) Fog
|
|
|
Hog butcher for the world,
Tool maker, stacker of wheat,
Player with railroads and the nation's freight handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the big shoulders.
-Carl Sandburg, from poem Chicago, 1916
|
|
Creativity
|
|
|
One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Dreams
|
|
|
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Grammar
|
|
|
I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Hell
|
|
|
Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Idealism
|
|
|
I am an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Intelligence
|
|
|
The greatest cunning is to have none at all.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Language
|
|
|
Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Mathematics
|
|
|
Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky -- or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.
-Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems, 1950
|
|
Oceans
|
|
|
The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Optimism
|
|
|
In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you wake in the morning.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Past, the
|
|
|
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, no just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Peace
|
|
|
Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.
-Carl Sandburg
|
|
Poetry
|
|
|
Poetry is the achievement of the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
-Carl Sandburg
|
Books by and about Carl Sandburg