Chicago

**Chicago**, pg. 824. The title of the poem suggests that it will incorporate the city of Chicago. The Author is Carl Sandburg. media type="file" key="My Great Movie.mov" width="182" height="182" The **imagery** of the poem brings an image of an industrial city. I can just see the people the people busy and working throughout the city. I can hear the railroads working and being worked on. I can hear the laughter of the men, I can feel the hard work put into action. I can taste the sweaty day of the ever strengthening hard work.

The overall **mood** of the poem would be serious. The literary devices that are used are through repetition. It repeats many of the same words throughout the poem. It repeats laughing the, stormy, husky, brawling laughter of youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be hog butcher, tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with the railroads and freight handler to the nation. The theme of the poem is the hard work being done in Chicago. This is revealed through repetition, and all the suggestions to the all the work being done through the sweat, building, rebuilding, stacker of wheat, hog butcher. All together it brings one big picture of the work being done.

Chicago, is a **lyrical** poem. It describes the author's feelings regarding the character of the city during the early Twentieth century as "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." (Sandburg 826) In the poem, Sandburg discuses the challenges of daily life and he implies that Chicago is a tough city in which to reside.

The poem is separated into **stanzas** all of which are written in a **free verse** form consisting of twenty seven lines of poetry. The level of content in each line differs greatly, ranging from, "Painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys", to simple lines such as, "Laughing!" (Sandburg 825-826).

Examples of **figurative Language** include specific **metaphors**, such as, "Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action", (Sandburg 826). The metaphor implies that the city is unforgiving and will kick you when you fall.


 * Devices of sound** include lines such as "Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding." (Sandburg, 825) This line distracts the reader and feels loud.
 * Analytical Paragraph, #1, Lindsay Mease.**

“Chicago”, Carl Sandburg, is a poem describing the struggles of living in such an industrial city and the possible evils it contains. “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Play with the Railroads, and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders:” pg. 825. It’s saying that the city has to be very strong, and work hard with “big shoulders”. This poem also states that even the hard workers are capable of evil. “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.” pg. 826. It is saying that even the people in charge have flaws, but they get away with them, because they are “free to kill again”. The poem then states even with the flaws there is not a prouder place to be. “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning”, pg. 826. “Chicago”, is a poem that describes the city and all it contains, the good, the bad and the struggles.


 * Analytical Paragraph, #2, Christopher Cunningham.**

“Chicago”, Carl Sandburg, is a poem that can be classified in what is now known as the social realist movement of the early twentieth century. Like many other social realists of the time, Sandburg illustrated working class issues in his poem, “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.” (Sandburg, 825) This line raised controversial such as illegal activities, prostitution in particular. Other stanzas foreshadow abstract thoughts such as the fine line between good and evil. “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!” (Sandburg, 826) The author personifies the erection of skyscrapers as beings capable of escaping the evils of society by building ever higher, at the same time Sandburg points out that evil and hard working society still remains below. By communicating realistic social issues, the poem “Chicago” has become the epitome of social realism.