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.
Analysis
Carl Sandburg's poem “ Chicago ” both scrutinizes and defends his fine city. Sandburg agrees with those looking at Chicago from the outside that the city is hard and unfair. Prostitution is a real problem for the city, as well as the mafia and corrupt law enforcement. Workers spend their whole lives inside factories only to struggle to put food on their tables. Chicago houses many of its victims, but they are proud to be there. These workers and ladies of the night and Mafioso would not choose another home. They rallied with the city after the Great Fire; they build the railroads and slaughter the hogs that bring life to its boundaries; they are young, strong, motivated, driven people, just like Chicago. Chicagoans know that they are better than all other cities because they, personally, built their city to its magnitude. The multiple jobs and hunger and despair cannot push Chicagoans into defeat; they will rise with their skyscrapers and continue to toil and sweat for the good of their home.