Thursday, November 16, 2017
Carl Sandburg: "Muckers"
MUCKERS
Twenty men stand watching the muckers.
Stabbing the sides of the ditch
Where clay gleams yellow,
Driving the blades of their shovels
Deeper and deeper for the new gas mains,
Wiping sweat off their faces
With red bandanas.
The muckers work on . . . pausing . . . to pull
Their boots out of suckholes where they slosh.
Of the twenty looking on
Ten murmur, "O, it's a hell of a job,"
Ten others, "Jesus, I wish I had the job."
-- Carl Sandburg --
Complete Poems
Two groups of ten and while they stand next to each other, they occupy different worlds, or so it seems to Carl Sandburg. It reminds me of that saying attributed to a Native American: Condemn no one until you have walked a mile in that person's shoes. As I look back, I see too many times when I forgot this.
This is a very physical poem: ditch, clay, stabbing, blades, shovels, sweat, boots in suckholes, slosh, red bandanas. . ..
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R.T., I fear you are correct about Sandburg's current status in the lit. universe. Perhaps it offends some cultivated sensibilities. . .
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's too blue-collar for them?
i can verify that, except for describing men instead of track hoes, CS has it about right... i worked for the gas company for years and was occupied in building multiple pipelines. there are always lots of supervisors, safety reps, ichthyologists, engineers, etc. in hard hats standing around with clip boards and miscellaneous tools, watching progress.. i like Carl Sandburg; always meant to read his bio of Lincoln, but haven't yet... his one claim to fame is the poem about fog creeping into SF on little cat feet...
ReplyDeleteMudpuddle, yes on little cat feet may be his best known poem. Among his long poems I think his best known one is "Chicago."
DeleteFirst stanza:
CHICAGO
"Hog butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:"
Of course, having grown up in Chicago, I may be a bit biased.
It has been awhile since I have read Sandburg. I should delve into his work again.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that he was out of fashion as you and RT have commented on. It is pity.
I really like the blue collar related imagery here.
Brian Joseph, I have the same problem--I don't spend enough time reading Sandburg. He deserves a lot more attention than the little I give him.
DeleteA lot of his poetry seems to have that blue collar imagery. I wonder if that's why he's being ignored.
I've been a great fan of Sandburg for several decades but forget exactly how I discovered his work.
ReplyDeletemadamevauquer, I've been reading him on-and-off for many years now also. My first contact may have been the Fog poem, or maybe the Chicago poem (I grew up in Chicago).
DeleteI did those kind of hard labor jobs most of my teens and 20s. I always appreciated Sandburg for his evocation of that life, although he sometimes feels a bit sentimental about it. Another favorite along the same lines, but less sentimental, is Phillip Levine. His poems "Not this Pig," and "They feed they lion" come easily to mind even after all these years.
ReplyDeletePops, yes sometimes there's a touch of the happy peasants, singing as they sweat and stain.
DeleteI don't know Phillip Levine at all. I shall have to dig around a bit.