Verse

Unknown Carl Sandburg Poem on Gun Violence Found

Previously unknown and unpublished, "The Revolver" deals with the timely issue of gun violence.

A previously unknown and unpublished poem by the late writer Carl Sandburg has turned up in the archives of the University of Illinois, and it even address the timely issue of gun violence. The poem, "A Revolver," was found by retired professor Ernie Gullerud, who has been volunteering every Thursday to help index Sandburg's archives in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The poem's last line is: "And nothing in human philosophy persists more strangely than the old belief that God is always on the side of those who have the most revolvers." The poem was typed on scratch paper, though it's unknown when Sandburg wrote it. Sandburg, who died in 1967, received Pulitzer Prizes for poetry in 1919 and 1951 and another in 1940 for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.