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Brecht and Carl Sandburg: Kindred Poets
Author(s) -
Grimm Reinhold
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1987.tb00562.x
Subject(s) - witness , poetry , literature , ideology , philosophy , politics , art , linguistics , law , political science
Summary Carl Sandburg (1879–1967) seems to have been and remained totally unaware of Bertolt Brecht while the latter got to know at least some of the former's poems, if only rather belatedly. Nevertheless, there obtains a certain kinship between the two poets, extending from their political stance ‐ Brecht's socialism and Sandburg's populism ‐ right down to the specific, almost unique, mode of musical performance they shared. This similarity manifests itself both thematically and in terms of form and composition; most strikingly, it comes to the fore in what has been labeled their “mid‐poem shift,” i.e. a sudden dramatic turning point which is structural as well as emotional and even ideological (as witness, for example, Sandburg's famous “Chicago” and Brecht's “Verschollener Ruhm der Riesenstadt New York”).