Languages

Writers have chosen to expound upon the theme of language itself for virtually all of recorded literary history, but Sandburg’s “Languages” is interesting in its bittersweet approach to the subject matter. Many famous works upon this theme have tended to center upon celebrating language—especially the written word—as something that can defy time. From Ovid in Augustinian Rome to William Shakespeare in the Renaissance, to the Romantic writers of the 19th century, there has been a long tradition of writers and poets claiming that their works can and will make them immortal.

“Languages” breaks away from this more laudatory tradition and offers a different perspective. The speaker in Sandburg’s poem does not claim that his words will make him immortal, or defy time: Rather, he repeatedly emphasizes the fragility of languages, insisting that all languages will inevitably die out and be replaced in turn by new languages. Even the written word fares little better than spoken words in “Languages,” as the speaker’s reference to “faded hieroglyphics” (Line 17) stands as a warning that even the written form of a language can become irrelevant and forgotten over the course of history. The more somber, poignant view of language displayed in Sandburg’s poem therefore forms an interesting alternative to more typical writerly takes on the theme, suggesting that language may not always be as powerful or as enduring as writers and poets would wish it to be (See “Further Reading & Resources” for examples).

Sandburg’s focus on the nuances of language and how language, like rivers, changes, fits well with his place in America’s literary canon. During his time in Chicago, Sandburg was a member of the famed Chicago literary renaissance. This second iteration of the group included such notable poets, editors, and writers as Edgar Lee Masters (Spoon River Anthology), Sherwood Anderson (Winesburg, Ohio), Harriet Monroe (“America”), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), and Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie). In addition to being a poet, Harriet Monroe was the founder of the long-running Poetry Magazine in 1912. Now run by The Poetry Foundation, Poetry is “the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking language” (“About Us.” The Poetry Foundation). With Monroe’s support, Sandburg wrote and published poems that were refreshingly down-to-earth and that embraced free verse.

Sandburg would eventually hone his trademark brand during this time as well: poetry that centered American Industrialism. Like America’s modernizing, ever-changing industry during Sandburg’s day, Sandburg’s free verse depicts change, decay, and rebirth, such as he does in “Languages” and throughout Chicago Poems. Smoke and Steel (1920), a later volume, is a textbook example of the poet navigating the various nuances (beauty, ugliness, past, present, etc.) he encountered in American industry while living in and touring around America. Like Whitman before him (Monroe encouraged Sandburg to emulate this literary forefather’s free, expansive verse), Sandburg’s poetry acknowledges the bittersweet beauty—including everyday beauty—in birth, death, and rebirth.