Poem by Carl Sandburg

Chicago

      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 be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker,
Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler
   to the Nation.

1. Limited
2. Chicago Poet
3. Threes
4. Prayers of Steel
5. Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind

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