Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandsburg: 
-born on January 6th 1878 
-Very poor 
-worked at the age of thirteen and dropped out of school. 
-He met a man from Lombard college, he convinced Sandsburg to enroll in Lombard the next year. 
-Hi professor saw he had talent and even published his first book Reckless Ecstasy (1901)
-He was known for his free verse Whitman-like poems
-He wrote poems all through the 10's, 20's and 30's. 

Languages
by Carl Sandburg
There are no handles upon a language Whereby men take hold of it And mark it with signs for its remembrance. It is a river, this language, Once in a thousand years Breaking a new course Changing its way to the ocean. It is mountain effluvia Moving to valleys And from nation to nation Crossing borders and mixing. Languages die like rivers. Words wrapped round your tongue today And broken to shape of thought Between your teeth and lips speaking Now and today Shall be faded hieroglyphics Ten thousand years from now. Sing—and singing—remember Your song dies and changes And is not here to-morrow Any more than the wind Blowing ten thousand years ago. Reaction: I thought this poem said how languages change and disappear like any other thing.

Thanks For Remembering Us

Dana Gioia

The flowers sent here by mistake,
signed with a name that no one knew,
are turning bad. What shall we do?
Our neighbor says they're not for her,
and no one has a birthday near.
We should thank someone for the blunder.
Is one of us having an affair?
At first we laugh, and then we wonder.

The iris was the first to die,
enshrouded in its sickly-sweet
and lingering perfume. The roses
fell one petal at a time,
and now the ferns are turning dry.
The room smells like a funeral,
but there they sit, too much at home,
accusing us of some small crime,
like love forgotten, and we can't
throw out a gift we've never owned.

Reaction: 

I liked this poem for its almost funny tone. The author seemed to be confused about who sent the flowers but also joked about it and acted like it was no big deal. The way he describes the way the house smelt made the mood go back to serious because he said it smelt like a funeral.

Meaning:

I think the author wanted to tell his audience that you can't trust anyone, not even your spouse. He ays how even though they both seem to brush the flowers off, they both wonder if their partner is having an affair. The trust they seemed to have for one another is starting to fade because of these flowers sent to no one. The way he described the flowers could be another way of saying that each time a flower died another day died with it. 

Technique:

He used imagery to describe the look of the flowers as they died, this made you see the vase of dead flowers. Also his use of metaphors gave the reader an insight as to the way things really were, you could smell the room as you read his line. He did rhyme some line but not others.