Sandburg's Song: Part 2

Part Two: The Poem

        If you read part one of this post, you had the opportunity to mull over Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago.” To understand the bulk of this poem, it’s important also to understand a bit of Chicago history and geography. 

            See, when Chicago was first incorporated as a town in the 1830’s, it was already a bustling trading post due to its smack-dab-in-the middle-of-the-country locale and, with Lake Michigan as its geographical dance partner, was an ideal hub for all the nations trading activity. Cargo of merchandise would arrive from the east on trains or ships worming their way through the great lakes, be processed in Chicago Union Stock Yards, then continue west on trains or boats navigating the various rivers, and vice versa.

               

General Drawing of Chicago Union Stock Yards, 1901

 The Stock Yards were home to large companies like Sears-Roebucks, Pullman Rail Company, and slaughterhouses and meatpacking companies like Armour, Oscar-Mayer, and Swift(which is the central focus of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”). These slaughterhouses would dump excess animal waste into the rivers which would then flow into Lake Michigan, that freaking st…REEKED! But I digress, where was I? Oh yeah, Sandburg. So in the first stanza we see what he’s talking about:

“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:”

"American Masters" PBS Promo Poster 

But one more, very important, description appears in this stanza: Sandburg personifies Chicago, meaning he gives it human qualities. But not just any elderly human with a bad back and poor eyesight, but one with vigor, a “stormy, husky, brawling” human; a strong human with “big shoulders.” Sandburg’s likening Chicago to a young, brash man is the crux of this poem.

 In 1914 Chicago was approximately 80 years old; Old, but not as old as other world cities such as Tokyo, London, New York, and Mexico City, yet it was growing like a teenager with an overactive pituitary gland, almost twice as fast as any of its predecessors. This rapid growth in commerce and population exceeded the growth of government, which made Chicago ripe with debauchery and vice, teeming with criminals and greedy politicians, and overrun with freebooters from all over the country looking to exploit the city’s youth and inexperience. In the second stanza we’ll witness this, then see how the young Chicago (we’ll call him ‘Little Chi-City’) responds to his critics: 

“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;”

So apparently Little Chi-City gives no fucks for criticism. The narrator sees validity in the condemnation of all its vices: murder, crooked politicians, prostitutes, and homelessness, but praises Chicago’s strength and “cunning” in the face of adversity. Little Chi-City “with lifted head” sings, “proud to be alive.”

"American Masters" PBS promo poster

And the most vivid description comes in the last sentence which continues Little Chi-City’s characterization not only as young brash man, but a “tall, bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities.” Bam! You could almost see Mohammed Ali vs. Pee-Wee Herman. 

In the last portion Sandburg continues, unabashed, to build Little Chi-City as a force on the world stage, unrestrained and hungry. And, in one masterful stroke, ends the poem with the beginning stanza yet, by this point, the tone has changed so dramatically from that of a city whose reputation stinks like its slaughterhouses to one whose audacious strength and pride stem from the same forum as its initial degradation, challenging and taunting.

“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.”

         

"American Masters" PBS Promo poster

So this is  how Sandburg saw Chicago. Not as a large, sophisticated, cultured world city; only because it wasn't that yet. At the time, he saw it for exactly what it was: A young, dirty, crime-ridden town, growing, busting at the seams with world potential.

If you have any questions or comments about the poem or Sandburg, I'd love to hear from you. Also please check back for “Part 3: The Aftermath,” Thank for reading!