Fog

Carl Sandburg

 The fog comes
 on little cat feet.

 It sits looking
 over harbor and city
 on silent haunches
 and then moves on.

Commentary

As Thomas remarked in the notes to Crucible[1], Sandburg’s poetry ranges from passionate, granitic verse to the most delicate and finely-chiselled Imagist poems, and he displays an equal mastery of both ends of the spectrum. Today’s poem - perhaps his most famous after Chicago - belongs to the latter category; as perfect and self-contained as a miniature, and with a truly striking central image.

— Martin

Links

A biography of Sandburg is available at poem #163

‘Crucible’ is at poem #205,
along with another biography

We’ve run a number of Sandburg poems - look up the index at
The Wondering Minstrels


The Wondering Minstrels, poem #282 · 3 December 1999

Poem selected by Martin DeMello

Fair use