_ _ _, __'_THE SUMMER MICHIGAN DAILY-PAGI
C R TTI UE
CRITIQUE
BY G.D.E.
"Slabs of the Sunburnt West," (Har
court Brace & Co.), by Carl Sandbur
was at once a joy and a disappoint
ment to me. Still, it was not as dis
appointing as it might have been, fo
I saw the proof sheets two or thre
months ago while riding with Sand
burg to Detroit. At that time I note
that many of the-shorter poems wer
much below his general level, tha
they were cryptic, mystic, nonsensical
I wondered what he was driving at
and I am wondering yet.
I had just previously heard him sa
on the platform that to condemn a
poem because one could not under
stand it was the poorest sort of crit
icism, or words to that effect, and s
I withheld my opinion awaiting inves
tigation. I quite agreed with him u
to a certain extent, for the average
man is a complete ass and utterly in
capable of understanding anythin
more cultural than the jingles o
Walt Mason. But 1 have asked the lit-
erati and intelligentsia of the coun-
try, from east to west what certai
poems of Sandburg's mean. They dc
not know and in most cases frankly
confess as much. In other cases some
have attempted interpretations, some-
times rather elaborate, and it amused
me vastly to see how widely and even
oppositely they held views. But most
of them classified such enigma of
verse as second, third, and fourth, rate
poetry.
For whom, may I ask, is Sandburg
writing such stuff? As Browning
once caid, perhaps God and he can
understand it, (indeed, I believe this
was one of Sandburg's ideas of a
defense) but who else? It certainly
gives most intelligent readers no joy,
and if Sandburg wishes his readers
to indulge in cabalistic stuff he ought
at least to provide some key. "Heiro-
glyphics of Chicago-And Rosetta
Stone." Alas, my idea falls flat, and
I come around again to the conclusion
that Sandburg should stick to the rug-
ged, vivid, struggling pictures which
made him a first rate poet, the best
American poet, in fact, since Walt
Whitman.
If you want to see examples of pur-
est tosh, take up "Slabs of the Sun-
brunt West" and read "Two Humpt-
ies," or "Gold Mud." If, on the oth-
er hand, you want something exceed-
ingly fine, something vastly above tri-
vial attempts at mysticism, something
with the flame and fire and life of
Sandburg at his best, read, in the
same volume, "The Windy City" or
"Washington Monument by Night," or
"And So Today, or "Upstream," or
xthe title poem, "Slabs of the Sun-
burnt West." Most of this latter
group are quite lengthy, and it is in
the lengthy poems 'that Sandburg is
almost always at his best. This fact
leads me to believe that even behind
his little obscurations there is al-
ways a clear gem of an idea, uncrys-
tallized to be sure, but there none the
less. I daresay that most of his ab-
strusities, given twice the space,
would be absolutely understandable
by any inteligent person. I think I
can safely say that his long poems
are invariably good.
I admit freely and gladly that the
majority of the poems in the volume
are full of merit and I shall probably,
when I have read them often enough,
like them as well as I do his "Chica-
go Poems," or "Smoke and Steel," or
"Cornhuskers4" That -I to say, I
shall think them without equal in
contemporary American poetry. "Slabs
of the Sunburnt West," is I feel cer-
tain, superb. I shall quote a bit from
it for the benefit of the half dozen
civilized persons on the campus, and
leave it to their judgment-that is, if
the linotypist doesn't wreck the busi-
ness while I am immersed in my
whisky-and-muscadine.
"Into the blanket of night goes the
overland train,
Intothe black of the night the proces4
sions march,
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Press Building, Maynard Street.-Adv.
The ghost of a pony goes by,
A hat tied" to the saddle,
Thehwagon tongue of a prairie
schooner
And the handle of a Forty-niner's
pickax
Do a, shiver dance in the desert
dust,
In the coyote gray of the alkali
dust.
And-six men with cigars in the buf-
fet car mention 'civilization,'
'history,' 'God'."
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Next week "SHAVINGS" I
CHUBB HOUSE _
Will be open during Summer £ -
Session - Tastes like home a BXLLIAuDS cIGAUS CA"IES
-Try us - Chubb House is PIPES LUNCIE A
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209 SOUTH STATE STREET UUU UUE h EW8a
Arcade-Viola Dana in "Seeing's
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Wuerth-Will Rogers in "A Poor
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phone 1593-J
for your lunch
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Orpheum- Miss Dupont in
Wonderful Wife"; comedy.
"A
This Week-Stage
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709 North
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t
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k
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X11N
ai L W
For The
Summer Months
a Tent to give you a real
vacation trip
or-
Awnings to preserve your
draperies from fading in
the direct rays of the sun.
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Enjoy a good swim in the pure filtered water at
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the "Y"
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The Tent above illustrated is a
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At Moderate Prices
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BRING YOUR IDEAS TO THE
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We will make use of them and the best
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SEEJNGS~BELLvNG
ADDED
AL. ST. JOHN in "FOOL DAYS"
Tomorrow and Saturday
A Ghost Doesn't Shave--
Roy St. George did, and when
his mother made him play Little
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was as deep as his voice. He
kicked-and so begins the story
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"THI
R
I I / 1 fjw f/, 1aV 11 1i Y l~ t11 1 r ;
I II
LAST TIME TODAY
mi
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A
a
ss
Du PONT
The noted beauty in
"Foolish Wives"
in-
E WONDERFUL WIFE"
Defoe's Immortal
obinson Crusoe"2
CHAPTER 10
wh
'POOR
LAIO
dimecceddrby
KIDDER CLARENCE BADGER
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