Cornhuskers

by Carl Sandburg

Illustrated with 10 unique illustrations # CORNHUSKERS * PRAIRIE * RIVER ROADS * PRAIRIE WATERS BY NIGHT * EARLY MOON * LAUGHING CORN * AUTUMN MOVEMENT * FALLTIME * ILLINOIS FARMER * HITS AND RUNS * VILLAGE IN LATE SUMMER * BLIZZARD NOTES * SUNSET FROM OMAHA HOTEL WINDOW * STILL LIFE * BAND CONCERT * THREE PIECES ON THE SMOKE OF AUTUMN * LOCALITIES * CABOOSE THOUGHTS * ALIX * POTATO BLOSSOM SONGS AND JIGS * LOAM * MANITOBA CHILDE ROLAND * WILDERNESS * PERSONS HALF KNOWN * CHICAGO POET * FIRE-LOGS * REPETITIONS * ADELAIDE CRAPSEY * YOUNG BULLFROGS * MEMOIR OF A PROUD BOY * BILBEA * SOUTHERN PACIFIC * WASHERWOMAN * PORTRAIT OF A MOTOR CAR * GIRL IN A CAGE * BUFFALO BILL * SIXTEEN MONTHS * CHILD MARGARET * SINGING NIGGER # LEATHER LEGGINGS * LEATHER LEGGINGS * PRAYERS OF STEEL * ALWAYS THE MOB * JABBERERS * CARTOON * INTERIOR * STREET WINDOW * PALLADIUMS * CLOCKS # LEGENDS * CLOWNS DYING * PSALM OF THOSE WHO GO FORTH BEFORE DAYLIGHT * HORSES AND MEN IN RAIN * QUESTIONNAIRE * NEAR KEOKUK * SLANTS AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK * FLAT LANDS * LAWYER * THREE BALLS * CHICKS * HUMDRUM * JOLIET * KNUCKS * TESTAMENT # HAUNTS * VALLEY SONG * IN TALL GRASS * UPSTAIRS * MONOSYLLABIC * FILMS * KREISLER * THE SEA HOLD * GOLDWING MOTH * LOIN CLOTH * HEMLOCK AND CEDAR * SUMMER SHIRT SALE * MEDALLION * BRICKLAYER LOVE * ASHURNATSIRPAL III * MAMMY HUMS * BRINGERS * CRIMSON RAMBLER * HAUNTS * HAVE ME * FIRE DREAMS * BABY FACE * THE YEAR * DRUMNOTES 1 * MOONSET * GARDEN WIRELESS * HANDFULS * COOL TOMBS # SHENANDOAH * SHENANDOAH * NEW FEET * OLD OSAWATOMIE * GRASS * FLANDERS * GARGOYLE * OLD TIMERS * HOUSE * JOHN ERICSSON DAY MEMORIAL, 1918 * REMEMBERED WOMEN * OUT OF WHITE LIPS * MEMOIR * A MILLION YOUNG WORKMEN, 1915 * SMOKE * A TALL MAN * THE FOUR BROTHERS

Genres: Poetry, Classics

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1918

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

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compared with Chicago Poems, this volume has more poems that deal with land and the rural man. I enjoyed this emphasis especially in the first section titled “Cornhuskers.” The war poems of the “Shenandoah” section were also pretty good although not on par with some of my favorite WWI poets like Sassoon, Owens, Rosenberg, or Brooke. This was the second volume in a book of the complete works of Sandburg. I’m leaning toward Sandburg not being one of my favorite poets at this point but we’ll see… to be continued…

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cornhuskers is prairie lyric. Leather Leggings is more urban. Haunts is affections. Persons Half Known is dull. Shenandoah is weak war poems.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Carl Sandburg's poetry. It feels easy to follow, to lie and rest in and feel inspired and fulfilled. He give images that speak to my own memories. One line from one of the poems I had not heard nor read before struck me: I lean on an ash and watch the lights fall, the red ember glow, and three muskrats swim west in a fan of ripples on a sheet of river gold.
Lines like this make me wish I had the skill of painting. I can see the scene and it would be great to paint. But, for now, it rests only in my mind.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) in 1919 was one of the second recipients of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his collection “Cornhuskers”. The collection is divided into several sections including: “Cornhuskers”; “Persons Half Known”; “Leather Leggings”; “Haunts”; and “Shenandoah”. Each of the sections has its own feel to it and the poems range from the long “Prairie” and “The Four Brothers” which bookend the entire collection, to the very short, such as “Cartoon”. The subject or the poems also contrasts, though one would expect that in most collections. Lastly, time itself has added an additional contrast to the collection which I will discuss later.

“Cornhuskers” includes poems about life on the great plains of the United States. It opens with the masterful 11-page “Prairie”, which is unlike any other poem in the section and only is approached in terms of scope by “The Four Brothers” which closes the collection. The poems in this section often deal with nature and history and the feel of life in the rural plains areas.

“Person’s Half Known” includes poems about people of some renown, though who they are is not always readily apparent. “Chicago Poet” is about himself, “Fire-Logs” is about Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, and other people he writes about include the likes of Inez Milholland, Adelaide Crapsey, and others, and one can enjoy a trip through history in learning about the subjects of these poems.

“Leather Leggings” is an unusual section as it seems to have more to do with the activities of people, though some of the poems don’t necessarily fit that loose definition. The poems deal with a very wide variety of professions, activities, and the products of those labors. As an example, “Clocks” deals with a variety of time-pieces and how they are used in different ways and “Flat Lands” deals with those in the real estate profession.

“Haunts” deals with those feelings and memories which one remembers throughout their life. Here there are poems remembering a love, a special time, one’s lost childhood, music, faith, and much more.

The last section is “Shenandoah”, which contains poems about war, and for whatever reason this section feels even more timeless than the rest of the book. Perhaps that is because this world so seldom knows real peace that one can easily identify with the feelings and images which these poems bring to mind.

This a tremendous collection of poems, which are filled with history, feelings, images, and so much more. It has but one weakness, and that is a word which has become so hateful that it pains the reader to run across it at any time, and certainly when reading such wonderful poetry. It appears fewer than 10 times in the book, and yet each time it does it gives one pause. It makes one wish for a new edition to remove it or change it, but at the same time one would never want to lose or change such art. Thus all one can do is to reflect on the mistakes of our past and appreciate how such words and hatred can damage even that which was created for the most benign purpose.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something beautifully sparse in the way Sandburg writes - his language is stripped down, straightforward and free of frills.

While there are some issues with certain poems in this collection - the usage of the word "nigger" certainly sits ill with us modern readers - it is overall a beautiful collection that paints a picture of both the vastness of the world and of its humbler details. Sandburg's love of the wide open spaces of the world is as clear and as evident as his anti-war sentiment in the latter parts of the book.

Some poems stick in the mind more than others - among them 'Leather Leggings' and 'The Sea Hold', but there are few weak points to be found here.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is honest, hard working, down to earth poetry. He celebrates the ordinary working people, and the lyricism and the rhythm swing to an industrial, instead of post-industrial beat. Some poems i love, some I don't like, but I learn from all of them. Some of the shorter satires are beautiful and devastating. It makes a nice, short break from the rest of life.

[Cathy DuPont · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love Carl Sandburg and I love so many of his poems. What a wonderful person he was. I think he left earth giving much more than he took and humanity was better for it.

[Angie Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems contained in the "Shenandoah" segment are powerful and beautiful and sad. This collection of poetry is wonderful.

[Paige Kujan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Four Brothers is an insane way to close out this collection — from the late 1800s love of the land, of the city he called his home, to the lament of World War I. I don’t know if he was in it, but he certainly wrote with an opinion and hell if I’m not a sucker for war time poetry.

Otherwise, these had some great lines, a perspective that I could peer into, and understood in a way, being midwestern and missing it. But man, this is surely a white man in the turn of the century — there are slurs thrown and insinuations I wish weren’t made in the middle of gorgeous proclamations. He tried to make dehumanization natural in a few of these. I did look up his personal politics, especially being of Chicago during the turn of the century, and found he was a socialist who wrote about the Chicago Race Riots in 1919. He was a reporter and a listener to the black citizens in Chicago who were being prosecuted and attacked. I do believe that context is important. I didn’t like reading slurs though and they ruined pretty much the entire poem the instant they were written (generalization of one group normally does), but I do find it important to understand an author’s context in their time period.

I could see how he grew over time, and I really like Haunts as a group of poems. I was hoping the poem that Mark Green quotes in Season 6 of E.R. would be in this collection, but his Chicago poems, the ones I believe to be his most beloved were not in fact present. At this time, with what I have read, I see how he could become beloved, but I am personally unimpressed. Phillip Levine has the same working man struggle/industrialization vibe going on and I would recommend his poetry before any I’ve read of Sandburg. Maybe he’s not for me. To each their own. I’m just happy I’m done and that’s not a personally good sign!

Song I listened to so I could lock in on the words and try to get sadder: June by Ann Annie

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the Heartland to Flanders

I have been a fan of #carlsandburg since investing many months reading his 3600 page six volume biography on #abrahamlincoln. It was exhausting but likewise Illuminating as the historian met the the poet. For.that massive work, he won the #1940 #pulitzerprizeforhistory and the adoration of historians and Lincoln fans alike.

#cornhuskers is written by a much younger #sandburg for which he won the #1919 #pulitzerprizeforpoetry , the first of his three. In it he blends the sentimentality of the prairies with the cynicism of the antiwar advocate. The book is broken into five sections of roughly twenty poems each. The first section, Cornhuskers, focuses on prairie settler life. The last section, Shenandoah, dwells primarily on topics of war from the blood soaked valley at the center of many American Civil War battles, to Flanders and the millions dead throughout the Late Great War just passed.

His last poem, The Four Brothers, pulls no punches as a brutal indictment of imperial war. Excellently written and organized.

#readrheworld #readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #americanpoetry #pulitzerprizerreadingchallenge #americanliterature

[Dale Lehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the several poets I've read recently, Sandburg connects the best with me. That may be because, like me, he's a midwesterner. When he speaks of prairies, farmers, fields, of rivers, trees, and small towns, I'm right there with him. When he ventures farther afield, I can follow, because I've also lived in the east and the west of my country. And in the poems of World War I, I'm there because my grandfather was there.

The only thing I didn't like was the formatting of this particular edition. I'm not sure who put it together. There's no publication data whatsoever in the book, and the online listing for it only mentions Createspace. Whoever you were, you really need to hire a typesetter next time. This looks like a Word document with no page breaks was thrown into the publishing tool. Sandburg deserves a better setting than that!

[Christine Kalleeny · Rating 5 out of 5]

"in Tall Grass" is a marvelous, succulent meditation on mortality, sticky to the lips.

Bees and a honeycomb in the dried head of a horse in a pasture corner

—a skull in the tall grass and a buzz and a buzz of the yellow

honey-hunters.

And I ask no better a winding sheet
(over the earth and under the sun.)

Let the bees go honey-hunting with yellow blur of wings in the dome of

my head, in the rumbling, singing arch of my skull.

Let there be wings and yellow dust and the drone of dreams of honey—

who loses and remembers?—who keeps and forgets?

In a blue sheen of moon over the bones and under the hanging

honeycomb the bees come home and the bees sleep.

[Amal Farrough · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this volume as an audio book while driving through Iowa and Illinois, including through Carl Sandburg’s home town. Seeing the landscape while hearing his beautiful and vivid descriptions, and his odes to the working man, was a good experience. However, I can’t recommend this volume to the modern reader because of his casual racism (which I fully realize was acceptable and common at the time he was writing.) In particular, his too-frequent use of the n-word makes many of his poems no longer readable.

[JMJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prairie of the titular collection is where Sandburg shows his talents best, in his descriptions of the natural landscape. My interest waned with the collections in the middle however where we move to the urban environments. Shenandoah’s Grass, A Million Young Workmen 1915 and The Four Brothers let to a better ending however.

[Steve Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve often said I hate most poetry. Sandburg confirmed this with this work.

Out of this Pulitzer winning collection I could only find one that resonated with me. Others had memorable lines that were wrapped in unmemorable poetry. His repeated use of a racial slur can’t be softened or excused by the context of the era in which he wrote.

[Rich Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another strong collection of Sandburg’s early poems. The final poems addressing WWI are especially interesting, especially in its denouncement of the power structures that put the workingman on battlefields.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful day, a cup of coffee on the porch and a collection of accessible poems,... 1919 Pulitzer Prize winning poems.
Poet Carl Sandburg's poems of kings and soldiers war should be read today

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine early Sandburg collection, in which the poet vividly explores the themes of nature, common folk and the senselessness of war. “Shenandoah” and “Prairie” are two of my favorites here.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cornhuskers is incredibly ephemeral, rather than the timelessness often associated with other Pulitzer winners. Most of the poems are in some form of list, so it reads more like a grocery to-do.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid collection of poetry celebrating the common man and woman along with the beauty of the land. The poems on the horror of war, however, stood out a little more.

[Emaline · Rating 4 out of 5]

contains some of my favorite poems of all time. sufjan stevens i know why carl sandburg came to you in a dream

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm kind of obsessed with "Prayers of Steel."

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adored the opening poem. So colorful! The vast majority of the book was okay. The last poem was a favorite of mine too. I definitely prefer his lengthy poetry.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd be first to admit that I'm not much of an expert on poetry. That being said, I really don't understand how this book won a Pulitzer. Virtually none of the poems here (with one or two exceptions) speak to me in any significant way. I prefer poetry that presents ideas rather than creates beautiful imagery. Especially when that imagery pertains to corn. Plus, there's no less poeteic word to me than the n-word, which Sandburg seems to have a fixation with.

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I attended Carl Sandburg Jr High School and read a few of his poems then, but this is the first time I spent any real time with his works. I enjoyed some of the poems and others, not so much. This may have been because this book was part of a collection of Pulitzer Prize winners which I read on kindle. It was difficult to navigate through the book so I read it straight through, which is not how I normally read poetry.

[Edmund Davis-Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book, did not enter my heart the same way Chicago Poems did.

Looking forward to reading more from Carl Sandburg.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another homerun for Sandburg

[Charles Sheard · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its best when Sandburg paints with the same voice from his earlier Chicago Poems. His poems of WWI are to me less effective, and more of a single note.