Who Am I Carl Sandburg Meaning

The poem, Who Am I?, by Carl Sandburg, answers the question of the title through in depth descriptions of the final concept of truth. Through the poem the author takes you on a journey to discover the quality of truth. Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on January 6, 1878, and grew up there. After he served in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American war, Sandburg enrolled in Lombard College. He then moved to Milwaukee, where he worked as an advertising writer and a newspaper reporter. When he got married he ended his reporting venture. In 1916 Carl Sandburg’s book,”Chicago Poems” containing the poem, Who Am I?, and many others, was published. He died at age 89 on July 22, 1967. I feel as though his war experience and reporting experience put together influenced this poem because knowing those experiences in depth make him extremely knowledgeable of the world around him.
In doing this, he uses metaphors to create imagery for the reader. For example, in the first stanza of the poem there is a line that states, “I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.” This quote describes what the characteristic of Truth is doing. It is using an unrealistic comparison when the poem says, “pebbles of destiny.” Destiny is a non concrete thing, something that cannot be seen, and the author is using pebbles, something that can be seen, to compare the two things in relation to truth. He uses metaphors like this throughout the poem to impact symbolism and imagery that the reader can connect to. Sandburg also uses the sound device of repetition with the first person words, “I” and “Me”. I think he uses repetition in this sense to help describe characteristics of the final idea of truth while adding mysteriousness to the