Theme in Yellow (Carl Sandburg)

They still have the vampire Mona Lisa picture up on poets.org, but tonight I went for a seasonal poem rather than a Halloween one. I found Theme in Yellow by Chicago's own Carl Sandburg.

I love that Carl Sandburg managed to write a poem that conveys yellow, that is yellow, without having to repeat yellow or talk about burning suns and traffic lights. The scene is set with yellow, sure, the autumn-leaved trees on the hillside and the ready-for-harvest grain in the fields. But then he goes farther along the color wheel and pulls in shades of orange, black, smoke-white, and moldy green-yellow.

I think that if the general population were asked what color autumn is, they would name the colors that Carl Sandburg lists in this poem. They might even site examples that he includes himself--pumpkins, grain, the moon, and nighttime.

Personally, I think that this poem is a better portrait of fall than yesterday's was. Yes, Halloween is pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the season, but the essence has been distilled into this poem.

Favorite line: "I light the prairie cornfields/Orange and tawny gold clusters/And I am called pumpkins."