Fog / Carl Sandburg

Chicago, Illinois skyline in fog, August 2002. Photo by David Sky. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

"Fog" is a poem by Carl Sandburg. It originally appeared in Sandburg's debut collection of poems, Chicago Poems, published in 1916.

Fog

"Fog" Carl Sandburg poem CARL SANDBURG RECITES (poetry is like music--listen for musical effects)

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

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

Background

Sandburg has described the genesis of the poem. At a time when he was carrying a book of Japanese "Haiku", he went to interview a juvenile court judge, and he had cut through Grant Park and saw the fog over Chicago harbor. He had certainly seen many fogs before, but this time he had to wait forty minutes for the judge, and he only had a piece of newsprint handy, so he decided to create an "American Haiku".

Anthologies

This poem has been frequently anthologized. Perhaps the earliest was Untermeyer, Louis, ed. (1919), Modern American Poetry, Harcourt, Brace and Howe, http://www.bartleby.com/br/104.html .

Reception

Harriet Monroe, the editor of Poetry who published several of the poems that went into Chicago Poems, said as part of her review of that collection:

I remember the emotion with which I first read many of these poems ... That first conviction of beauty and power returns to me as I read them again. This is speech torn out of the heart, because the loveliness of ... a fog coming on "little cat feet,"—the incommunicable loveliness of the earth, of life—is too keen to be borne ....

Staging

In 1959 and 1960, Bette Davis and her husband Gary Merrill toured the nation, putting on The World of Carl Sandburg, a dramatic staged reading of select ed Sandburg poetry and prose, culminating in a one month run on Broadway (with Leif Erickson instead of Merrill). A review described highlights of Davis's performance, including:

... as if on catlike feet, she makes "Fog" seem new; ...

—Howard Taubman, New York Times, 9/15/1960, p. 44

Recordings

• TC 1253 - A vinyl LP of Carl Sandburg reading some of his poems, Carl Sandburg reading Fog and other poems was released on Caedmon (TC 1253) in 1968. Description: 2s. : 33-1/3 rpm, stereo ; 12in.

• Reviewed: J. R. S. (March 1969). The English Journal 58 (3): 467. JSTOR 811820: 

  Although the poet's reading mannerisms are as pronounced as always, the effect in this recording is one of naturalness and spontaneity.

• An online link to Sandburg reading "Fog" is maintained by the state of Illinois.

Recognition

In popular culture

Poet Richard Brautigan wrote a parody of the poem circa 1956.

The poem was once loosely paraphrased on a 2008 episode of The McLaughlin Group during which host John Mclaughlin and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan discussed the candidacy of 2008 Republican Presidential nominee John McCain. This exchange was later revisited when Andrew WK included a version of the conversation in a rock anthem song he composed which was featured on Public Radio International.

See also

• Other poems by Sandburg

External links

Text

• "Fog" at the Poetry Foundation

About

• Overview

This poem is in the public domain