|   | 1 |  initial version  | 
This isn't necessarily simplification; which one is really "simpler"? But Sage does support this - you may want a combination of several symbolic methods. Try this.
f = x^2 + 2*x + 1
f.factor()
 Copyright Sage, 2010. Some rights reserved under creative commons license. Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license.
 
                
                Copyright Sage, 2010. Some rights reserved under creative commons license. Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license.