Carl Sandburg: January 6, 1878--July 22, 1967

Who is the subject of this poem by Sandburg?


Under a telephone pole

I am a copper wire slung in the air,
Slim against the sun I make not even a clear line of shadow.
Night and day I keep singing--humming and thrumming:
It is love and war and money; it is the fighting and the tears,
the work and want.
Death and laughter of men and women passing through me,
carrier of your speech,
In the rain and the wet dripping, in the dawn and the shine drying,
A copper wire.

-- Carl Sandburg --


a wire? a poet?