19 pages • 38 minutes read
Carl SandburgJazz Fantasia
Carl SandburgFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1922A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Jazzmen
The jazzmen are the great artists, bringing life and sound to the world. They are mystical, magical, and divine in their ability to bring energy. Sandburg, a musician, uses their techniques in the composition of this poem. “Jazz Fantasia” feels improvised as it moves from scene to scene without logical connection, yet upon a close read, the themes are present throughout the entirety of the poem. The way Sandburg composed and structured the poem is similar to the improvised and sporadic nature of jazz music that, despite its seeming randomness, has musically thematic connections throughout the performance. One could almost set the poem to an upbeat jazz melody, as the two would so well complement one another.
In “Jazz Fantasia,” the jazzmen serve more as the poet’s muse than as actual people. The speaker invokes them at the beginning of the poem to sing their song; at the end of the poem, he invokes them again to return to their starry home as the speaker tells them to go to the red moon in the sky. The magical quality the speaker gives to these musicians shows his appreciation and love of their craft. The speaker offers a clear reverence for those who can make jazz music.
The Steamboat
The steamboat pushing up the Mississippi River holds many connotations. Primarily, it is a sign of industrial progress, leveraging the natural power of the Mississippi to bring goods, wealth, people, and progress up and down the countryside. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mississippi River was centrally important for industrialization and business, as it is the second longest and most accessible river in the country. The steamboat conquered the Mississippi, fueling people’s feelings of dominance over the land.
On a literary level, the Mississippi’s most famous depiction is in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain. In the novel, the river offers the main characters, Huck and Jim, freedom from their captors and oppressors. Jim, an escaped slave, accompanies Huck, a runaway, on a journey to the south. Symbolically, moving down river to the deep south was an image of going backwards to slavery, traditionalism, and a rural lifestyle. Conversely, moving northward was a sign of moving toward industry, freedom, and progress.
“Jazz Fantasia” reimagines the steamboat as its own musical instrument, bringing the musical culture of African American New Orleans to the north, where cities like Chicago can enjoy it.
Nature and the City
While most of Sandburg’s poetry is about the city, “Jazz Fantasia” focuses both on urban and natural imagery. The first contrasting line comes in the third stanza when the speaker compares the music to “an autumn wind high in the lonesome tree-tops” (Line 5). But the most noteworthy example of contrast between city and country is the last stanza, where the chaotic image transitions to something less rough. In this stanza, the speaker replaces the city with “high soft stars” (Line 11) and “a red moon […] on the humps of the low river hills” (Line 12). Yet even in this stanza dedicated to the countryside, the image of the technological, man-made steamboat dominates the scene, merging its smoke with the stars.
The suggestion here is one of acceptance of progress. The speaker finds music in the juxtaposition between natural and manmade imagery. Normally, writers use this contrast to criticize society and the excesses or downsides of technological progress. Sandburg, though, flips the traditional association and sees these contrasting images as different notes in the same song—another nod to jazz music’s unpredictability and concordant beauty.
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