What is poetry? quotes by Carl Sandburg

“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.”

“Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is sent during the moment.”

“Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.”

“Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.” 

PHOTO: Carl Sandburg with his friend Marilyn Monroe, circa 1960. The actress and the writer first met when Sandburg was in Hollywood working on a movie script and was assigned (and perhaps this is apocryphal) to use her dressing room as a temporary office. When Monroe later visited Sandburg in New York, she showed up with her hair a shade of platinum blonde that people thought she’d colored to match Sandburg’s white mane. Reflecting on Marilyn, Sandburg said: ”She had a mind out of the ordinary for show people. I found her well read. I gave her a book of my complete poetry. I wanted her to 
have it.” Find a partial list of books in Marilyn Monroe’s library here.

Joltin’ Joe, poem by Joan Jobe Smith

JOLTIN’ JOE
by Joan Jobe Smith

I’ve begun to drink from The Joe
DiMaggio Cup I’ve kept put away for
years, a black, rather pretty thing
with a wing-like handle Joe DiMaggio
drank Cappuccino from I served him
one night when I worked as a cocktail
waitress in a swanky hotel and when
Joe DiMaggio didn’t want a second one
I snuck the cup into my purse,
Joe DiMaggio’s lip prints were washed away
years ago but I like to imagine them
still there handsome-thick, dark Italian
barely middle-aged next to mine as I
sip from The Cup and wonder: if only
I hadn’t asked him something personal
about Marilyn Monroe, maybe he might’ve
flirted with my fishnet stockings
and asked me my name.

Women authors in Marilyn Monroe’s library

Earlier today, we posted several lists of books from Marilyn Monroe’s library. A reader commented that no women appeared on the list — and, to correct that oversight, a list of books from MM’s library by women authors appears below. (I only selected authors whose names today’s readers would recognize.)

The Women by Clare Boothe Luce

Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy

Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay

The Collected Short Stories by Dorothy Parker

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson

Photo: Marilyn Monroe  at home in Los Angeles reading a book by a woman author while dressed in pink.

BFFs: Marilyn Monroe and Carl Sandburg

Photo: Carl Sandburg with his friend Marilyn Monroe, circa 1960.

The actress and the poet first met when Sandburg was in Hollywood working on a movie script and was assigned (and perhaps this is apocryphal) to use her dressing room as a temporary office. When Monroe later visited Sandburg in New York, she showed up with her hair a shade of platinum blonde that people thought she’d colored to match Sandburg’s white mane. Reflecting on Marilyn, Sandburg said: ”She had a mind out of the ordinary for show people. I found her well read. I gave her a book of my complete poetry. I wanted her to have it.” 

Novels in Marilyn Monroe’s Library

TEN NOVELS IN MARILYN MONROE’S 400-VOLUME LIBRARY

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Ulysses by James Joyce
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
4. Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
5. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
6. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
7. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
8. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
10. A Death in The Family by James Agee

Photo: Marilyn Monroe mural art, Hollywood

Marilyn Monroe’s Taste in Novels

MARILYN MONROE’S 400-VOLUME LIBRARY INCLUDED THESE NOVELS:

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• The Dubliners by James Joyce
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• Justine by Lawrence Durrell
• Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Marilyn Monroe reads Ulysses by James Joyce

The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring.”

JAMES JOYCE, Ulysses

Photo of Marilyn Monroe by Eve Arnold

Marilyn Monroe’s library

Marilyn Monroe’s personal library contained 400 volumes on a wide range of topics — including science, philosophy, religion, and politics. She was fond of novels by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck, and an avid reader of poetry and works of drama. Find a list of 261 books in Marilyn’s collection here.

Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Toys, Little Golden Book by Edith Osswald, Read by Marilyn Monroe

Most of us have fond memories of Little Golden Books — either having someone read them to us or reading them to our children or other relatives. Publisher Simon and Schuster began the series on October 1, 1942 with 12 titles — including the now-iconic The Poky Little Puppy. Ownership of the series changed several times over the decades — and in 2001 Random House acquired Little Golden Books for $85 million.

When Little Golden Books celebrated its golden anniversary in 1992, 500 million of its volumes were in circulation. Over the years, Little Golden Books have remained virtually identical in appearance  — The Pokey Little Puppy still looks the same as when it arrived over 70 years ago.

In the above photo from the late 1940s, Marilyn Monroe reads the Little Golden Book TOYS by Edith Osswald to a friend’s child. If you are familiar with Monroe’s upbringing and orphanhood, this photo is quite touching. A copy of the original 1945 edition of TOYS is for sale on ebay for $50.

I Hear America Singing, Poem by Walt Whiman

I HEAR AMERICA SINGING
by Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

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“I Hear America Singing” is found in THE LEAVES OF GRASS, a collection of poetry by Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Download the book for free in a variety of formats at Gutenberg.org.

Photo: Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) reads THE LEAVES OF GRASS while relaxing on the grass. (Photo circa mid-1950s.)