− Dial 70:80 Ja ’21 680w
“‘Smoke and steel’ is longer than either of the earlier volumes, and not so uniformly good. Over many pages, it must be admitted, Mr Sandburg has rather obviously repeated himself, has put himself through motions that were more profitable once than they are now. But the book as a whole has great fascination and pull. Technically, Mr Sandburg is as interesting as any poet alive.”
+ Nation 111:621 D 1 ’21 750w
“This new collection establishes what ‘Chicago poems’ only promised and ‘Cornhuskers’ plainly intimated. It proves that these states can now claim two living major poets: Sandburg and Frost.” L: Untermeyer
+ New Repub 25:86 D 15 ’20 1450w
“He is misty, rather than descriptive or truly evocative; he is the whole antithesis of the imagist demand for a sharply evoked image, if this is their demand; and, sometimes at least, it should be. We see the smoke, and miss the steel.” Clement Wood
− + N Y Call p6 Ja 9 ’21 600w
Reviewed by Babette Deutsch
+ N Y Evening Post p6 N 27 ’20 1150w
“Reading these poems gives me more of a patriotic emotion than ever ‘The star-spangled banner’ has been able to do. This is America, and Mr Sandburg loves her so much that suddenly we realize how much we love her, too. Either this is a very remarkable poet or he is nothing, for with the minors he clearly has no place. He has greatly dared, and I personally believe that posterity with its pruning hand will mount him high on the ladder of poetic achievement.” Amy Lowell