SOURCE: Lowell, Amy. “Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg.” In Tendencies in Modern American Poetry, pp. 139-232. New York: Macmillan, 1917.

In the following excerpt, Lowell considers Sandburg's life, his work as a propagandist and lyric poet, and his place in the American poetic tradition.

… To turn from Edgar Lee Masters to Carl Sandburg is like crossing the line of a generation. In actual years, they are not so far apart, but they represent the two sides of the barrier of change. Mr. Sandburg, although intellectually and poetically in the second stage of our “movement,” belongs to the new America which I have called multi-racial. He springs from the strong immigrant class which comes yearly in boat-loads to our shores. It is he and his ilk who are moving us away from our Anglo-Saxon inheritance. It is he and his ilk who bring us the points of view which...