In his short poem “Bones”, the American poet Carl Sandburg says to “Sling me...”where?

The American poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) wrote the short poem titled ‘Bones’. The first few lines begin: “Sling me under the sea. Pack me down in the salt and wet.”

He then declares that: “No farmer’s plow shall touch my bones.”

With a reference to Shakespeare’s play, he announces: “No Hamlet hold my jaws and speak How jokes are gone and empty is my mouth”

Then Sandburg lets us know that since he is under the sea: “Long green-eyed scavengers shall pick my eyes, Purple fish play hide-and-seek,”

Continuing, he offers us a personification: “And I shall be song of thunder, crash of sea,”

His short poem ends where he began: “Down on the floors of slat and wet. Sling me... under the sea.”

Sandburg was born in the midwestern state of Illinois. His parents emigrated from Sweden. Because of the family’s dire poverty, Sandburg left school at the age of 13 to work different odd jobs from laying bricks to dishwashing.

At the age of 17, he traveled west to the state of Kansas as a hobo. After a short tour of duty in the military, he returned to the U.S. and entered college, where through a supportive professor, his first column of poetry, a pamphlet called ‘Reckless Ecstasy (1904) was published.

Sandburg’s poem ‘Bones’ was composed in 1919.