Dunes
Dunes - context Summary
Published in Chicago Poems
Published in Carl Sandburg’s 1916 collection Chicago Poems, "Dunes" is a short free-verse monologue that places two speakers alone on moonlit dunes. The poem frames intimate, conversational reflections—addressing "Bill"—about memory, images of the dead, and the precariousness of human effort. Its spare, direct language and unadorned lines create a meditative, public-private voice that situates personal grief within larger social and moral questions.
Read Complete AnalysesWhat do we see here in the sand dunes of the white moon alone with our thoughts, Bill, alone with our dreams, Bill, soft as the women tying scarves around their heads dancing, alone with a picture and a picture coming one after the other of all the dead, the dead more than all these grains of sand one by one piled here in the moon, piled against the sky-line taking shapes like the hand of the wind wanted. What do we see here, Bill, outside of what the wise men beat their heads on, outside of what the poets cry for and the soldiers drive on headlong and leave their skulls in the sun for—what, Bill?
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