What Is The Mood Of The Poem Chicago By Carl Sandburg
Chicago by Carl Sandburg
The poem being reviewed in this paper is “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg. The poem addresses the progress and problems present in the city, but asserts that Chicago is powerful, vibrant, and a city to be proud of. “Chicago” also personifies the city and gives it a very specific character.
The first two lines of the first stanza, “Hog Butcher for the World/Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat” are referring to the industry of Chicago and it’s place in the economy. Around the time of the gilded era, Chicago was filled with railroads and stockyards. Cattle from around the Midwest would be transported on trains to Chicago, where they would be housed in stockyards until they were either purchased or slaughtered. Chicago was also …show more content…
The lines “Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth/Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs” continue to define and shape this personified Chicago; A young man, covered in the smoke and dust of his work, laughs in the face of his destiny. Although he is somewhat boorish and arrogant (“Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle”), he knows he is rich with life and spirit and passion (“Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing!”). The laughter has a relatively dark undertone. It is the people of Chicago laughing in the face of their hardship, the people of Chicago finding pride in being hog butchers and wheat stackers. This is illustrated further in the last line of the poem, where the narrator asserts that the “stormy, husky, brawling” people of Chicago are “proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the
The poem being reviewed in this paper is “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg. The poem addresses the progress and problems present in the city, but asserts that Chicago is powerful, vibrant, and a city to be proud of. “Chicago” also personifies the city and gives it a very specific character.
The first two lines of the first stanza, “Hog Butcher for the World/Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat” are referring to the industry of Chicago and it’s place in the economy. Around the time of the gilded era, Chicago was filled with railroads and stockyards. Cattle from around the Midwest would be transported on trains to Chicago, where they would be housed in stockyards until they were either purchased or slaughtered. Chicago was also …show more content…
The lines “Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth/Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs” continue to define and shape this personified Chicago; A young man, covered in the smoke and dust of his work, laughs in the face of his destiny. Although he is somewhat boorish and arrogant (“Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle”), he knows he is rich with life and spirit and passion (“Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing!”). The laughter has a relatively dark undertone. It is the people of Chicago laughing in the face of their hardship, the people of Chicago finding pride in being hog butchers and wheat stackers. This is illustrated further in the last line of the poem, where the narrator asserts that the “stormy, husky, brawling” people of Chicago are “proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the