Carl Sandburg wrote a poem in 1914 called "Chicago", describing the city's toughness and vitality. The poem portrays Chicago as a place of contrasts, where one can see both joy and unseamly aspects. Sandburg's description includes vivid imagery of the city's workers, including the lines "Building, breaking, rebuilding" to describe their constant labor and effort.
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Story summary
Carl Sandburg's 1914 poem "Chicago" was written to capture the city's vibrant labor culture and its darker aspects. The poem describes Chicago as a place where people come together to work and thrive, but also grapple with poverty and violence. The city is portrayed as a "Hog Butcher for the World," "Tool Maker," "Stacker of Wheat," and "Player with Railroads", highlighting its role in American industry. Sandburg's poem also touches on the city's seedy underbelly, where women are lured by painted ladies and gunmen go unpunished. Despite these challenges, the city is depicted as proud to be alive, coarse, strong, and cunning. The poem's tone is celebratory, with a focus on Chicago's unique spirit and its people's resilience in the face of adversity.
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Perhaps the most famous lines Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) ever wrote were from this 1914 poem, “Chicago,” describing the city where he lived in the 1910s.
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he → write → 1910s
Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
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women → brawl → boys
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
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gunman → tell → me
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
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I → tell → hunger
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
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I → answer → head
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities; Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness, Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding, Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs, Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle, Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing! Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
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pulse → fling → Nation
