I am not sure the origins of this piece - but I have seen other work with a
modernist edge.
Midwest/Chicago USA - early on - has all these interesting figures -
Sherwood Anderson, Edgar Lee Masters, _ _ Robinson, among others who are
admirably public/populist but aren't dummies. Kenneth Rexroth - tho he went
west - a product of that world. Funny to think of Poetry Magazine having its
origins there, too. I don't know if the history has ever been written
fully, or well. Modernism took such a heavy leather strap to it all - T.S.
Eliot rising above those sloppy mud filled St. Louis origins, etc. A
Mandarin gentility versus those who 'stayed home.'
Interesting to think of Bob Dylan - another mid-westerner - reaping great
material from both the mid-sections and the south - where the 'genteels'
refused to tread. A certain kind of courage for those who stay home and a
benefit. Think of Twain, Faulkner, as well, I do.
Stephen V
> That's excellent. Sandburg's stock seems very low currently --
> unfortunately his best known poems tend to be those which exemplify his
> callowness -- so it's good to be reminded that he could do things like this.
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