L+Godwin

**Sandburg, Carl (** **January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967)**
Sandburg grew up a hardworking man in a small family in the town of Galesburg, Illinois. He held various odd jobs as a young person including milk wagon boy and even worked with coal. As he became older he tried college for a few years before dropping out and also faught in the Spanish-American war. Throughout all of this Sandburg was an extremely active Democrat and was known to support the NAACP. Sandburgs life came to an end in 1967 where he resided in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

**FOG**


The fog comes on little cat feet.  It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. Carl Sandburg's poem "Fog" is a simple poem about a fog creeping slowly into a harbor and over a city. The fog then sits there for awhile before it leaves as simple as it came. This happens almost every morning on every coast at every harbor. This fog is even seen in the mountains and the plains, and it really is one of nature's most intriguing occurences. Sandburg's time at his various odd jobs could lead him to write about what is there, such as the fog, and simply try painting a mental picture through words. Sandburg probably had a complex mind, but this poem does not show it. I feel the poem also could be talking about life and how growing up is a slow process and seemingly creep on like "little cat feet." Life is then lived and no matter what happens, life is sitting there, then before you know it life is over.

GRASS
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work -

I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg And 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.

Grass is an enthralling poem by Carl Sandburg talking about the deaths of soldiers being piled high at the battles of Austerlitz, Waterloo, Gettysburg, Ypres, and Verdun. These battles ranged from the Napoleonic Wars to the American Civil War. Gettysburg was one of the most deadly battles in recorded history and the picture below shows the gruesomeness of the battle. The grass over two to ten years just grows over the bodies and eventually hides them. Sandburg most likely wrote about this from his time in the Spanish-American War and as many soldiers, changed his views on life. The grass is personified in this story, and is actually the narrator. The grass wants to shovel and to work to hide the bodies. The narrating grass then ask the two questions, "What place is this?" and "Where are we now?" This could mean that the grass was so busy working it lost where it was. I believe the grass could be a symbol for the government and how they try to hide deaths from the public eye. Today, I saw on the news that they tried hiding how Pat Tillman, an NFL player turned soldiers, died through friendly higher. I am sure that Sandburg saw these kind of things everyday while at war and he probably wondered why people thought of war as a game of RISK, and how there were victories and losses but people never thought of the deaths. That was just the grasses job to cover the bodies up. media type="youtube" key="rsowsH5jicY" height="247" width="287" 

**Harper, Michael S. (March 18, 1938-**
Michael S. Harper grew up in a not so wealthy environment in Brooklyn, New York. He listened to the blues, jazz, and other music and heard all sorts of poetry and poems. His three loves became music, history, and poetry. He got a B.A. and M.A. at California State and an M.F.A. at Iowa. He has written a total of ten books of poetry that have been nominated for many awards as prestigious as the National Book Award.

American History
by Michael S. Harper

Those four black girls blown up in that Alabama church remind me of five hundred middle passage blacks, in a net, under water in Charleston harbor //so redcoats// wouldn't find them. Can't find what you can't see can you?

Harper's American History poem is about the constant struggle of African-Americans since even before they arrived in America. The first part talks about how four black girls were killed in an Alabama church, which was a then, current news event about literally four black girls getting blown up in an Alabama church. This was a racist hate crime in what was probably the 1940's or 50's but what bothered Michael S. Harper was the fact that this was not an isolated incident. It was not even close because the second part of the poem talks about how the British or "redcoats" brought the Africans to America in a floating cage through the Middle Passage. This happened soon after America was colonized and the white population looked at it as a normal thing. I believe that Harper was frankly tired of the way blacks were being treated and being an activist of black rights felt that this poem showed that and maybe would get the message across to someone.

**Martin's Blues**
He came apart in the open, the slow motion cameras falling quickly neither alive nor kicking; stone blind dead on the balcony that old melody etched his black lips in a pruned echo: We shall overcome some day— Yes we did! Yes we did!

Harper's poem "Martin's Blues" is a very descriptive poem in which Martin Luther King Dies. The poem starts with Dr. King's body coming apart in the open and it was caught by cameras even in slow motion. His body falls quickly but since its not alive he can not kick and he is dead on the balcony in which he made his speech. His words that came from his lips "We shall overcome" gave his people the hope they needed to be free, and the so the poem ends with the statement repeated "Yes we did!"

**McKay, Claude** (September 15, 1889 - May 22, 1948)
Claude McKay was born in Jamaica on the 15th day of September in 1889 and is one of the original Harlem Renaissance writers. He grew up as a communist but soon realized that communism was too strict for his way of life. He also believed racism and capitalism went hand and hand. He visited Russia as a celebrity and was then banned from America because of his communist views until the 1940s when he moved to Harlem. He stayed there and over the years wrote many books about Harlem and injustice from his abnormal communist and anti-capitalist stand point. McKay died at the age of 59 from an unexpected heart attack.

If We Must Die
If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

McKay's poem "If We Must Die" is a very interesting poem about the nobility of death. He grew up in a rural city in Jamaica and he had to have seen deaths from starvation and inhumane gang torturing as many third-world countries have. The poem starts off with the analogy of a hog being killed by pack of hungry dogs. How the swine is get penned in corners and are mocked by the dogs before there insignificant lives are ended. The poem goes on to speak of how the narrator wants a noble death and that he does not want his precious blood shed.

media type="custom" key="4773367"
I WILL FINISH AFTER CLASS. PLEASE?

Tupac Shakur

In the Depths of Solitude