Elements of Literature Course 5

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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.

1. How does Sandburg make you feel about the city he describes?
2. Sandburg opens with a series of epithets, or descriptive phrases, about Chicago. What does each of these epithets reveal about the city and the various activities that make up its economy?
3. What do “they” tell the speaker about Chicago? What is the speaker’s answer to each of these comments about the city?
4. Many different images contribute to this portrait of Chicago, but its central image is never named. To what is Chicago really being compared? How is this image introduced and extended?
5. What are the city’s main strengths and main weaknesses, according to Sandburg? What seems to be the poet’s attitude toward the city?
6. Which features of Chicago do you think have changed since this poem was written in 1914?
7. What would you say to those critics who have claimed that Sandburg’s poetry is full of bluster and proclamation at the expense of thought?

Reread Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" (page 352). Then, write some notes comparing and contrasting Whitman's poem with Sandburg's "Chicago." Gather your data in a chart (subject, imagery, figures of speech, rhythm, catalogs of details, slang and colloquial language, and tone).

Review the epithets Sandburg uses in addressing Chicago in the opening stanza. Then choose a city, town, or other area you know well. Write an apostrophe - a direct address to an inanimate object - using at least five epithets about the place you have chose.

Prepare this famous poem for a group performance. Your first task will be to decide how many speakers you will need and whether you will use a group of voices to recite some passages. You will also want to decide whether you will use sound effects, even music. Perform the poem for your class.

Using pictures from magazines and newspapers, create a collage to illustrate Sandburg's "Chicago." Look for references to specific images in the poem as you select drawings and photographs for the collage.