Sandburg \'Killers\' in the 21st

Sandburg 'Killers'

In the 21st century, a poem like Carl Sandburg's "Killers" needs to be re-read and placed into a historical context to be understood properly. "Killers" seems like it could be a race-based poem, a poem about slavery with Sandburg's references to "sixteen million men, / Chosen for shining teeth. / sharp eyes, hard legs...and a red juice soaks the dark soil." However, Sandburg was a Swedish-American. Although he was a socialist, Sandburg was likely not interested in providing racial commentary when he wrote "Killers," which was published in 1916 Chicago. Rather, the most likely identity of the sixteen million killers in Sandburg's poem is therefore the victims of World War One. Sandburg wrote the poem at the height of the Great War, around the time the United States declared war on Germany. Although the quantity sixteen million might have been an arbitrary number, millions of soldiers did die in the First World War and Sandburg honors them, their efforts, and their family members in "Killers."

The poet's tone is sad, almost morose. While the narrator introduces the poem as a lyrical ode: "I am singing to you / Soft," its tenor becomes increasingly morbid and filled with imagery of death and blood. The first verse betrays the poet's conflicted values regarding the war, too. He is "Soft as a man with a dead child speaks; / Hard as a man in handcuffs / Held where he cannot move."Yet already Sandburg reveals the true purpose of the poem: to refer to the horrendous death toll that occurs during a war as widespread and grandiose as World War One. The words "soft" and "hard" oppose each other, contrasting the valor of military service with the weaknesses in human nature. Those antonyms also indicate the narrator's mixed feelings about war in general. Although Sandburg makes a point to disparage killing in itself, he admires the hardworking soldiers that fought for their country, preserving the rights and freedoms they believed in. A mixture of hardness and softness pervades Sandburg's poem.

Sandburg's imagery corresponds with the poet's first stanza wordplay. The initial image of a man in handcuffs also hints at slavery, suggesting that Sandburg did not agree with military conscription. Millions of American men were drafted into military service when Congress declared war on Germany in 1917. It is possible that Sandburg was making a political statement with his poetry by using images of prisoners and slavery. Like good slaves, the soldiers were "chosen for shining teeth, / Sharp legs, hard legs." The draftees were, in essence, the healthiest young men in America. Their blood is bright red like "juice" and "warm" too. Sandburg therefore points out that war takes the lives of the best and brightest men in the nation. War is a hard, cold reality and Sandburg hopes to deliver this message to readers.

In some ways the poem reads like an apology for the soldiers and their families. He honors the sixteen million "killers" absolving them of their guilt when they "beat on my head." Sandburg utilizes several poetic devices to deliver the main theme of the poem. For instance, he uses repetition saying "killing...and killing." Similarly, the third stanza also uses repetition, for Sandburg starts each line with the word "And." The word "always" is also repeated in the last line of the fifth and the first line of the sixth stanzas.

The poet also uses first person to underscore his emotional engagement and commitment to the soldiers' souls. He starts the poem with the first person pronoun "I" and later states, "I never forget them day or night." The narrator also states, "I cry back to them." The narrator also notes affection for their "homes and women, dreams and games." Finally, one word in "Killers" proves that Sandburg wrote the poem in honor of World War One soldiers: "trenches." The narrator states, "I wake in the night and smell the trenches."

The narrator does not focus on himself, however. "Killers" is not a narcissistic poem. Instead, the narrator allows the soldiers to speak and act for themselves: "They beat on my head for memory of them, / They pound on my heart and I cry back to them." Diction becomes one of the most powerful poetic devices in "Killers." Words like "beat" and "pound" parallel the brutal theme of war.

However, Sandburg also uses imagery and devices like metaphor to convey the central theme, the horror of war. One of the most poignant images of "Killers" is how the soldier's "red juice runs." Comparing blood to juice is a cannibalistic symbol, suggesting that war is nothing but self-hatred: a dog-eat-dog world. More subtle imagery in the poem includes the narrator's noticing the "smell" of the trenches, which is surely the smell of death given the narrator's referring to "Some of them long sleepers for always." Sandburg cleverly contrasts this imagery of death with the morbid imagery of a "dead child." Juxtaposing life with death, Sandburg stresses how severe wars are and how deeply they affect human life.