Early Moon: An Illustrated Selection of Carl Sandburg's Poems for Young Readers

by Carl Sandburg

A selection of Sandburg's poems made for young people. A Voyager Book. 70 line drawings by James Daughetry.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1930

About the author

Free verse poems of known American writer Carl August Sandburg celebrated American people, geography, and industry; alongside his six-volume biography Abraham Lincoln (1926-1939), his collections of poetry include Smoke and Steel (1920).

This best editor won Pulitzer Prizes. Henry Louis Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_San...

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look what I found in my little ol' library!

Begins with an essay specifically for children, "Short Talk on Poetry."
"Ken Nakazawa notes, 'The poems that are obvious are like the puzzles that are already solved. They deny us the joy of seeking and creating.'
"Once a little girl showed to a friend a poem she had written. 'Why didn't you make it longer?' asked the friend. 'I could have,' she answered, 'but then it wouldn't have been a poem.' She meant she left something in the air for the reader of the poem to linger over."

One of my favorite poems here is new to me, *Jazz Fantasia,* with the line "let your trombones ooze, and go husha-husha-hush with the slippery sand-paper."

4.5 stars... I can't quite recommend it to everybody, but it is a terrific introduction to a terrific poet.

[Kienan Aguado · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book I wish my mother had read to me as a child

[Kathleen]

"One a man reading a newspaper clipped a poem written by a small boy in a school in New York City. The lines read:

There stands the elephant.
Bold and strong--
There he stands chewing his food.
We are strengthless against his strength" (13).

"And why we should hate any particular poem, thing or person is no more clear than why we love others, for hate is usually expensive in many ways and is a waste of time that belongs elsewhere" (21).

"Said a great modern artist, 'Going along a railroad one day I see a thing I have seen many times. But this day I suddenly *see*. 'Tisn't that you *see* new, but things have prepared you for a new vision" (22).

"As the years pass by and experience writes out new records in our mind life, we go back to some works of art that we rejected in the early days and find values we missed. Work, love, laughter, pain, death, put impressions on us as time passes, and as we brood over what has happened" (22).

"A few masterpieces may last across the years but we usually discard some. A few masterpieces are enough" (23).

"It was not for nothing Thoreau said an old newspaper would do for him just as well as a new one. Each of us can sit alone with our conscience for a while on the proposition of Robert Louis Stevenson that the intelligent man can find an Iliad of the human race in a newspaper" (23).

"Ken Nakazawa notes, 'The poems that are obvious are like the puzzles that are already solved. They deny us the joy of seeking and creating" (27).

"Once a little girl showed to a friend a poem she had written. 'Why didn't you make it longer?' asked the friend. 'I could have,' she answered, 'but then it wouldn't have been a poem.' She meant she left something in the air for the reader of the poem to linger over, as any of us do over a rose, a sunset, or a face. Roses, sunsets, faces, have mystery. If we could explain them, then after having delivered our explanations we could say, 'Take it from me, that's all there is to it, and there's no use your going any further for I've told you all there is and there isn't any more" (27).

PHIZZOG

This face you got,
This here phizzog you carry around,
You never picked it out for yourself
at all, at all—-did you?
This here phizzog—-somebody handed it
to you–am I right?
Somebody said, “Here’s yours, now go see
what you can do with it.”
Somebody slipped it to you and it was like
a package marked:
“No goods exchanged after being taken away”—-
This face you got. (41)

[Luke Levi]

Early Moon collects Carl Sandburg’s poem for children. That’s not the only reason the poems are simple. In his Collected Poems, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1950—his second Pulitzer—Sandburg writes in an imagistic, free verse style inspired by Walt Whitman. Here he writes about places he’s lived in a nostalgic way. These places include Chicago but also Flat Rock, North Carolina, his rural home where he produced about a third of his life’s work. Some of the poems can be found in other collections, like Smoke and Steel, so they aren’t all new. We are given illustrations from James Daugherty showing a classic and of-its-time art style that is still attractive. Although the poems are plain, they are meant for children. As such, they’re both simple in vocabulary but up to interpretation. Early Moon is a good book for those seeking more poems from Carl Sandburg, who at one time was thought to be chosen for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Even Ernest Hemingway thought Sandburg would win, for his long and detailed Abraham Lincoln biography, but the Nobel Prize went to Hemingway instead. Still, Sandburg remains a big name in American Poetry, as former President Lyndon B. Johnson called him: "Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America."

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I did not read all the poems in this book, I did read one poem, “Early Moon”. This poem was only a short eight line poem, however, it was probably the most detailed, difficult to understand, poems I've ever read. Carl Sandburg’s use of metaphors completely confused me. Many tropes are used throughout this poem to really makes the reader think in depth of the meaning behind each line. As you approach the middle of the poem, the tone switches up. He transitions from declarative sentences to interrogative sentences. As if, at first he was sure of what he was saying, but now he questions if it is right. I believe this poem is a bit advanced when you try to understand it. You must know background information of the Native Americans and their ways of life to pick up an understanding on the metaphors. For example, we must know what a papoose is, what the different colored stars represent, and also the positions and characteristics of the Native Americans. There is very strong imagery used; instead of saying, “they sat criss-cross.” He goes into detail of the position and the expression on the man’s face, which helps me (the reader) get an idea what the men were like. Overall, it was a beautiful poem, based off this one, I’m sure the rest of the poems are worth the read.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the poems in this were striking and beautiful. My absolute favorite would have to be "Five Cent Balloons." But mostly, they bored me. There can only be so many zen observations I can take. It felt too repetitive. Each new poem offering things not that much different from the one preceding it. It also didn't help that the poems were separated by subject matter, adding to the tiresome quality of the book tenfold. Because then, you can read ten very similar poems in a row about sleep. Or the night. Or whatever. I think Sandburg should definitely be recognized as an important poet because he obviously has a distinct, unique style that he mastered and would appeal to a lot of people, young and old. However, his individual poems are nothing to write home about. In fact, the best part of this book wasn't even the poetry, it was the introduction he wrote ABOUT poetry.

[Cathy Houston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carl Sandburg's poetry always a joy.