Give me hunger, pain and want, Shut me out with shame and failure From your doors of gold and fame, Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! But leave me a little love.
Carl SandburgRead
Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote describes poetry as an expression of yearning and exploration of the unknown.
Carl Sandburg's quote presents poetry as a profound means of expressing the deep-seated emotions and desires of the human experience. It encapsulates the struggle between the mundane and the unattainable, highlighting poetry's role in conveying our aspirations, our curiosities about life, and the fleeting beauty of existence. The imagery he employs suggests that poetry serves not only as a creative outlet but also as a way to confront the mysteries of life and nature.
Themes
PoetryExpressionArtYearningUnknownBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a creative writing class to inspire students to explore their emotions through poetry.
More from Carl Sandburg
All quotes →Nothing happens... but first a dream.
Carl SandburgRead
Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today. Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction. See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.
Carl SandburgRead
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Carl SandburgRead
There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
Carl SandburgRead
A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
Carl SandburgRead
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