Publication Date

1963

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Rodney, Robert M.||Baker, Orville

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of English

LCSH

Sandburg; Carl; 1878-1967

Abstract

The criticism of Carl Sandburg's poetry by three contemporary critics is examined by the writer of this paper in the light of the standards set by the leaders of the "New Poetry" movement which began in 1910, and by the poetic theory of Keats and Coleridge, who are literary forebears of the movement. Stuart Sherman, a traditional critic, considers Sandburg's poetry good when like Whitman, bad when like the Imagists, but always insincere because not consistent. Carl Van Boren analyses Sandburg's poetry seeking to find its interior pattern. He finds rapture and irony and tenderness in it and calls Sandburg an artist and a thinker. Michael Yatron relates Sandburg to the political Populist group of the end of the nineteenth century, says the poetry is journalistic propaganda in the cause of this party's ideals, and that its literary value is low. Yatron says the poetry will not last and that it is lacking in intellectual rigor, poetic diction, clear characterization, and universality. By explicating four poems, the writer of this paper seeks to point out that the poems have form, prosodic elements, modern poetic diction, evolutionary imagery, universal symbol, and an eschatological view. It is the stand taken by this writer that the Sandburg poetry is the product of art, that it has beauty, dignity, universality, poetic concept, evidence of passion and poetic skill, and that it will endure as literature.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

102 pages, 3 unnumbered pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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