Analysis Of What Shall He Tell That Son By Carl Sandburg

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In the poem What Shall He Tell That Son by Carl Sandburg, the author is imparting advice onto his son about the contradictory nature that is present in the world by using figurative language, apprising his son through the poem by giving him instructions on how to live life. In the poem, Sandburg is trying to relay the importance of being not only robust, but pliable as well, as both are necessary in life. He is conveying contrasting wisdom by informing his son that life is hard, so he in turn must be a rock, be resilient like steel, but that life is also soft loam and that his son must go easy and be gentle, so that both might serve him. Sandburg is also saying that desire and a rich soft wanting count in life, but that the want of too much