The loose syntax and progression of this letter suggests both Sandburg’s poetic relationship with language and his expectation of understanding from Ferril. Ferril was poet laureate of Colorado, and, in Sandburg’s words, the “the Poet of the Rockies.”
Carl Sandburg to Thomas Hornsby Ferril
Flat Rock NC May 22 51
Dear Tom
There was a lure about going to Aspen—fellowship with you and Syd Harris—visiting the birthplace of Goethe—you once wrote so casually and incidentally that Goethe was born in Aspen that inasmuch as I dont know for sure where he was born I sometimes have a suspicion that some woman fled Germany, gave birth to a little one at Aspen and later lo and behold it turned out to be Goethe who wrote a book about how foolish it was to be born and scores of German youths committed suicide after reading it and when I tried to read it to see whether I would feel like committing suicide I couldnt get interested so here I am alive and in circulation writing to the author of Westering and Trial by Fire with such cherished pieces as Let Your Mind Wander Over America, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, The Grandsons, No Mark, Fable, and others that ought to be in anthologies and test books, that wear well and are timeless for me. . . Suddenly came across a photograph of your father and daughter at a campfire, something sweet about it. . . Don’t know how it will happen but somewhere across the next year I’ll have a cross country trip with no dates set and I’ll be sliding into Denver and seeing you and Helen and maybe the author of The Care and Feeding of Husbands and we’ll talk about our daughters. . . I get it from many points I should do an autobiog. That’s an assignment to go ahead and forget the present colossal world drama and every day write “I, I, I” and “Me, Me, Me,” while singing that ditty of the 1880’s “Listen to My Tale of Woe.” Going to ponder on it, ponder on a lot of imponderables. . . Take care of yourself, Tom. You grow shrewder, keener, and yet more compassionate, all the time. The good Lord willing we’ll be meeting like a couple of indurated alumni.
Yrs
Carl
Why do I nearly always read it as Trial by Fire & need a second look to see it is Trial by Time?