‘The fog comes on little cat feet’, begins the poem titled ‘Fog’ by which 19th century American poet?

The poem titled ‘Fog’ was authored by Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), a 19th century American poet. It is a very short poem: ‘The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.’ He also composed other poems about the fog including ‘Pearl Fog’, ‘Baltic Fog Notes’, and ‘Fog Portrait’.

In addition to his poetry, Sandburg was also a biographer, journalist and editor winning three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of President Abraham Lincoln. Commentators attribute his popularity with Americans stating that is was based on his talent for connecting with so many different strands of American life. In fact at his death in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson observed that “Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the point of its strength and genius. He was America.”

He left school as the age of 13, worked driving a milk wagon, then as a porter at a hotel, became a bricklayer and farm laborer as well as a hotel servant and coal- heaver.

Of note, Sandburg was the first white man to be honored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with their Silver Plaque Award as a “major prophet of civil rights in our time.”