Carl Sandburg And Imagism

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) is a well-known biographer and poet in modern American literary history. Since the publication of his poem Chicago in 1914, Sandburg became the most outstanding representative of "Chicago Poets" and his works gradually gained a great popularity among common readers as well as in the field of literary criticism. He was twice awarded Pulitzer Prize owing to his magnificent literary works.As an active participant in the American New Poetry Movement of twentieth century, Carl Sandburg reflects his rich life experience, social impacts of American industrialization and the prevailing creative theories in his poems. In China, it was not until 1980s that more and more scholars began the study of his works. The relevant research involves around the introduction of his life, translation practices of major poems and explorations of his poetic creative features which have been illustrated as urban complex, anti-war standpoint, affinity with people and Imagist qualities. The present thesis will apply theories of Imagism, which flourished in the second decade of last century and ushered American New Poetry Movement, to interpret Sandburg's poems from the aspects of image, free verse, rhythm, theme, style and language and further explore his relationship with the literary group. The argument is that Sandburg not only accepts and employs Imagist theories for poetic creation, but also develops his own features, which contribute together to the uniqueness and charm of his poetry. To be specific, the thesis includes five chapters:Chapter 1 is an introductory part of Carl Sandburg's life and his literary career, especially his poetry, related study both in America and in China, research method applied in this thesis, its research value as well as the thematic structure.Chapter 2 focuses on Imagism. After a review of the development of Imagism, this part offers its three creative principles on image, language and rhythm in detail as well as its limitation and significance in literary history.Chapter 3 mainly analyzes Sandburg's representative poems under Imagist principles and intends to argue that Sandburg is influenced by Imagism. It first states his close friendship with Imagist leader Ezra Pound and his membership in this group and then points out their influence on his poetry from three angles, image, free verse and rhythm. Sandburg employs the technique of image in many poems so as to reveal the poetic themes objectively and accurately; he enriches free verse with short and long sentences to achieve aesthetic effects; he also abandons traditional regular rhyme scheme, instead relies on the original language qualities and rhetorical devices to show the musicality of poetry.Chapter 4 is in contrast to the above one, for it deals with the differences between Sandburg and Imagist poets, namely, his poetic characteristics. Since image itself is limited in presentation, it is hard to express complex thoughts and feelings, like profound social themes, in Imagist poems. However, Sandburg is famous for his social concerns. He wrote lots of poems on Chicago, recording the city's changes brought by industrialization; he was deeply concerned for the life of common people and always sympathetic to the oppressed; and his poems on war further show his affinity with people. Besides, he often narrates the life of commons in his poems and thus develops a narrative style which is not found in Imagist poetry. Last but not least, the Imagists highlight the usage of concise and accurate common speech, while Sandburg brings a kind of extremely common speech, namely vernacular language, into poems and broadens Imagist theory on poetic language.Chapter 5 is the conclusion part. Imagism cast tremendous influence over the birth and development of American New Poetry Movement. Carl Sandburg on one hand accepts and adopts the innovative poetic ideas proposed by Imagism, and on the other hand does not rigidly adhere to them. He records social reality and people's bitter-sweet life in their own language and finally establishes his unique poetic style. He deserves great admiration and the title of "People's Poet".