Carl Sandburg's  "Chicago"

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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 


 

 

 

Carl Sandburg  (1878 - 1967)

For more info on Sandburg and analysis of his work, click here.

"I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on the way."

Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, as the son of poor Swedish immigrant parents. Sandburg was educated at public school until he was thirteen, and he worked then in odd jobs in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. In 1898 he returned to his home town for a short time with the trade of house-painter. 

When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Sandurg enlisted in the 6th Infantry, but saw no combat. He entered Lombard college and encouraged by professor Philip Green Wright, he started to write poetry. His first book, In Reckless Ecstasy, was printed privately in 1904. 

After graduating in 1902 Sandburg worked as traveler for a stereoptican slides firm, labor organizer for the Wisconsin Social-Democrats and as a journalist on the Milwaukee Leader. In 1908 he married Lillian Steichen.

In 1913 Sandburg moved to Chicago, where was an editor of a business magazine, published articles in the International Socialist Review and later joined the staff of the Chicago Daily News. His poems started to appear in Harriet Moore's magazine Poetry. 

Sandburg's first major collection of poems, Chicago Poems, was published in 1916. His free  verse, reflecting industrial America, gained wide popularity during the  depression years.  Sandburg's Life of Lincoln was published in six volumes (1926-1939) . Sandburg's only novel, Remembrance Rock (1948), was an epic saga of America. His
autobiographical works include Always the Young Strangers (1953) and Ever the Winds of Change (1983). 

During World War II he wrote a folksy syndicated newspaper column for the Chicago Times.  Sandburg died on July 22, in 1967.