"The Harbor"

by Carl Sandburg

Biography | Role in America | Literary terms | Links | Works cited | Literary criticism | Activities | Poetry presentation web | Poem text and Outline

 


Picture Credit


PASSING through huddled and ugly walls,
By doorways where women haggard
Looked from their hunger-deep eyes,
Haunted with shadows of hunger-hands,
Out from the huddled and ugly walls,
I came sudden, at the city’s edge,
On a blue burst of lake,
Long lake waves breaking under the sun
On a spray-flung curve of shore;
And a fluttering storm of gulls, 
Masses of great gray wings
And flying white bellies
Veering and wheeling free in the open.

Outline

  1. Reading of Poem
    1. PASSING through huddled and ugly walls,
    2. By doorways where women haggard
    3. Looked from their hunger-deep eyes,
    4. Haunted with shadows of hunger-hands,
    5. Out from the huddled and ugly walls,
    6. I came sudden, at the city’s edge,
    7. On a blue burst of lake,
    8. Long lake waves breaking under the sun
    9. On a spray-flung curve of shore;
    10. And a fluttering storm of gulls,
    11. Masses of great gray wings
    12. And flying white bellies
    13. Veering and wheeling free in the open.

 

 

  1. Carl Sandburg’s Usual Literary Devices

 

1. Uses free verse: The aim of free verse is twofold. 1) To use the language of common speech, but to employ always

the exact word, not the nearly-exact or decorative. 2) To create new rhythms as the expression of new moods, to have

fully accurate poetry.

 

Free verse also adapts more easily to the subject matter it describes.

 

2. No rhyme: In Sandburg's poetry, colloquial voice and the rhythms of everyday speech are used. This contributes to

an effect of a half-rhyme- something between poetry and prose.

 

3. No rhythm: Sandburg was fond of quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes who characterized writing with rhyme as

"wearing iron fetters; it is dragging a chain and ball to march under their encumbrance."

 

4. Juxtaposition of mood, tone or structure: Sandburg often uses two contrasting moods to satirize society, usually a

somber mood of realism and a symbolic, buoyant tone of exultation and joyous sensibility. Often done through a

mid-poem tone shift, sometimes presenting a prevailing stereotype in the first section, and replacing it with his

own in the second.

 

5. Colloquial speech: Contributes to verisimilitude. Of this trait of his poetry, Sandburg said that "language

impermeates all, and has its bases close to the ground." Therefore, to truly speak to all of America,

it is neccesary to use slang and native idioms.

 

6. Literary devices that imply rhythm: He uses natural pauses and syllable length to give rhythm to poetry. Parallel

phrasing and repitition also contribute. He occasionally uses onomatopoeia and alliteration to the same end.

 

7. Photographic analogy: Since his poems were intended to be something of social documentation, and photography

was the standard for authentic preservation, Sandburg uses the structural device of vignettes using imagery.

 

8. Journalistic tone: Sandburg again attempts to precisely convey Chicago, this time, using the convention

of a sincere, restrained tone speaking in trustworthy, understated language. In addition, in many poems he uses

precise names, figures and quotes.

 

  1. Discussion of “The Harbor” in particular
    1. See webpage for complete discussion

 

  1. Discussion of “The Harbor” in context of all the Chicago Poems
    1. As we have talked about, it's nearly impossible to consider one poem out of the Chicago Poems by itself due to the way Carl Sandburg structured the collection. The collection is divided into four distinct parts. The poems are not actually seperated; however, they differ in terms of perspective, angle and distance from which the subjects are presented. The first part, in which "The Harbor" appears, presents a wide-angle, very general view of the city as a whole. This sets the stage for the rest of the collection, acting as a backdrop. "The Harbor" fits into this generalization very well, as it is a detatched, journalistic description of a setting. The second part of the collection narrows the scope of the city. Working class street life in general is depicted extensively in this section. Individual workers' lives are portrayed in the third part, with poems such as "Onion Days," about an Italian woman who sells Onions for a living. The last section of the collection most accurately fits the mythological/ archetypal anaysis, as Sandburg presents images of American heroes and anti-heroes in poems such as "Ice Handler" and "To a Contemporary Bunkshooter" addressed to Billy Sunday.

 

  1. Brief discussion of Carl Sandburg’s role in America
    1. American bard
    2. Whitmanesque and Emersonian influences
    3. American dream
  2. Mythological/Archetypal discussion
    1. Here, Chicago is personified as a collective hero, the working man, and the voice of the people. The city is an imperfect cultural hero (hence the list of shortcomings), but a truly American one. Through the rest of the Chicago Poems, Sandburg traces him through the archetypal "hero's journey," listing, through poetry, the obstacles that he faces in the form of poverty, hopelessness, and corruption.

 

    1. In addition to the hero's journey structure of the collection, Sandburg uses symbolism in the form of images in "The Harbor." For example, water often represents purification and redemptions and fertility and growth. In "The Harbor," these aspects of nature are implied in the juxtaposition of the stiffling city with the free, life-giving harbor.

 

    1. Creative energy, law in nature, consciousness, and enlightenment are represented by the sun in traditional mythological symbolism. In "The Harbor," the sun is used in conjunction with imagery that again gives the impression of freedom, both literally and spiritually, in nature.

 

    1. The color blue, used extensively in "The Harbor", as in "blue burst", is usually highly positive and associated with truth, religious feeling, security, and spiritual purity. Sandburg uses these connotations of the color blue very effectively in his poem to contrast the corruption of the city with the purity of nature.

 

    1. Walls, shadows, and haunted in the first part of the poem contribute to the impression of the city as dark, and smudged. Black and darkness in traditional symbolism are associated with evil, the unknown, and melancholy- certainly the feeling one gets from Sandburg's description of the city.

 

 

  1. Activities
    1. See website