Chicago: Summary 02

First Stanza

The first stanza is perhaps the most important because it sets the mood for the rest of the poem. It characterizes Chicago in terms that are not necessarily positive. If one views the first line, it begins with "Hog Butcher for the World." This is sort of describes one of the job descriptions or epithets Chicago is associated with. This is not perhaps the most glowing image to associate when one thinks of Chicago, but is made up for when he describes it as the "Nation's Freight Handler." With these two contrasting representations, one can almost guarantee it will be a poem of contrasts, and indeed it is. Brutal honesty is maintained throughout the work leaving few possibilities for readers to decry the speaker's accuracy or bias.

Second Stanza

The second stanza begins with acceptance. The speaker accepts that his city has problems. More than small ones it seems: prostitution ("painted women"), rampant murder ("killer go free"), and poverty and hunger ("wanton hunger"). He starts out neutral in the first stanza, even negative with few examples of positives, none obvious; now he accepts the faults the city has. The speaker speaks as if on trial, betraying the conclusion to come. He says, "They tell me you are wicked," and, "Yes, it is true" as if pleading guilty, but he does not give up as shown in the next part of this stanza After facing reality, the speaker stands resilient however. He challenges Chicago's accusers with the line beginning "And having." This marks a significant change in the mood.

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg

• Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He was the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and another for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat".

• Carl Sandburg, born Carl August Sandburg, was born in Galesburg, Illinois in 1878. His father was a railroad blacksmith and his mother worked as a maid in a Chicagoland hotel. The Sandburgs were hardworking middle class people who had to provide for Carl and his six siblings.

• Carl Sandburg only attended public school until the age of 14, when he left the eighth grade and began to do small jobs around town. At the age of 18, he embarked on his first trip to the city of Chicago with a pass he had borrowed from his father. Within a year, he had joined the masses of railroad stowaways who traveled the Midwest looking for work.

Chicago: Analysis - 02

When "Chicago" appeared in 1914, its savage energy created an uproar as Sandburg captured the staggering vitality of the great Midwest City in a poem of nearly mythic dimensions. As opposed to other poets of his generation, Sandburg did not like to experiment with complicated syntax and images, but rather preferred to give the reader something concrete and direct. Therefore, this leaves the tone of the poem to be more serious. 

Sandburg writes "Chicago" in blank verse in addition to free verse. Sandburg uses anaphora in his poem in lines 6-8. "They tell me you are wicked, and I believed them... I have seen the marks of wanton hunger." He repeats the phrase "They tell me you are," this shows to the reader about how much bad stuff is being spoken about the city. 

Another literary device that Sandburg uses in "Chicago" is the apostrophe. He uses this when he addresses the city as a person. ("They tell me you are...") Using this technique gives the reader the feeling that the city is somewhat alive and is human. Speaking of which, Sandburg also uses personification throughout the poem, giving the city human attributes. For example, look at lines 18-23. "Under the smoke...Freight-handler to the Nation." Similes are present in line 13 when Sandburg discusses about the animosity of the city. "Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness." 

ChicagoIn addition, this literary tool is used in lines 19 and 20 when Sandburg describes how it is laughing in comparison to a young man and an ignorant fighter, respectively. Another device used in "Chicago" is repetition, in line 18 and 19. Its use here is to show all the afflictions that covered it.

Chicago: Analysis - 01

Carl Sandburg's first major volume of poems, Chicago Poems, published in 1916, offered the poem "Chicago," which would go on to be one of the most famous poems that Sandburg wrote. It is a classic example of his form and subject as it uses free verse to reveal, explore, and celebrate the lives of common people. The themes of hard work, suffering, and survival are presented alongside those of laughter and youth with an almost brutal honesty that Sandburg extracted from the everyday language he listened to so closely throughout his life. The opening lines set the poem apart from much of the poetry of the time with "Hog Butcher of the World," and the list of epithets that follow.

Sandburg's poetry relied on themes of common, daily life in the same way that the poems of Walt Whitman had. Using a major urban landscape as a focus, the speaker goes on to mention the harsh yet vibrant aspects of American progress. There is violence and hunger in the city, and also the pride of a city so alive. The poem then offers another list, descriptions of work actions, and the line "Building, breaking, rebuilding" which could be seen to represent the cyclical nature of production and consumption in modern industrial life. The poem finishes with a definite emphasis on the experience of laughter, which offers another side of America often found in Sandburg's poetry, that of a country worthy of joyous celebration and livelihood in the face of hardship and progress.


Lines 1-5: 

Sandburg begins the poem with a list of names or epithets for the city that reflects its gritty, earthy, tough spirit. In the early twentieth century Chicago was a center for the industries Sandburg mentions. In these lines the speaker personifies the city by likening it to a "Stormy, husky, brawling" worker, with "Big Shoulders." This list also evokes the human workers who actually perform the work associated with these industries, thus establishing a link between the city and its inhabitants, and beginning a process of merging human qualities with the abstract "idea" of the city. In addition, by being identified with the city, each person seems to represent a combination of the individual and the universal. This is consistent with Sandburg's desire to elevates the working people to a level of great importance, and claims them to be essential elements of larger social organizations.

Lines 6-8: 

In these lines the speaker addresses a series of criticisms of the city followed by concrete images from the speaker's own experience which illustrate the criticisms. The city's wickedness is demonstrated by its prostitutes that corrupt innocent boys, its crookedness by killers that go unpunished, and its brutality by the hunger seen in the faces of its women and children. Here the speaker advances the personification of the city begun in the first stanza by directly addressing it as "you" and also by attributing the human qualities of wickedness, crookedness, and brutality to it. At this point in the poem Sandburg shifts to much longer lines and a more lyrical use of language, partially to mimic the conversational language of the direct address, but also as a way to increase the tempo and energy of the lines. 

Chicago: Summary 01

In the poem “Chicago” by “Carl Sandburg” he starts with giving the readers an image of what Chicago is like with the different types of jobs and the things the citizens do in their daily lives. At the start of the poem Sandburg explains what people would see in a daily life at Chicago, such as Tool making, farming and swine wholesale dealers. This shows that the city is full of vigorous people and that they always try to look strong towards the other cities around them by being organized and hard working. 

Then he tells us the unpleasant scenes that go around Chicago such as murdering and sexual immodesties, because he wants to show that Chicago does have “the bad side” and that they are not a perfect city. Sandburg then decides to remind us the brightening and the defenders of the unwanted scenes in Chicago. He has given examples such, “coarse and strong”, “bold” and “bragging”, showing us that Chicago is a strong, hard working and proud city to be in. He also presents us with an example that says, “Building, breaking, rebuilding”. This tells the readers that Chicago tries their best and immediately fixes not only buildings but also the people in Chicago and distasteful parts about it. 

This concludes that Chicago is a city with both ups and downs, but they are still proud of who they are and what they do.

Theme: Cities can be shown their bad side towards visitors, but without really knowing the city you will not be able to see the things that the city is highly proud of what they do in their daily lives.

Source: (2011, 11). Chicago Annotation/Interactive Analysis of Text. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 11, 2011, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Chicago-Annotation-Interactive-Analysis-Of-Text-859710.html

Chicago

By Carl Sandburg

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;