Chicago Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Home Brookwood High School 11th Grade American Literature

“Chicago” by Carl Sandburg 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 lampsluring the farm boys. And they tell my 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 cit, and I give them back the sneer and 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;

http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1890/timeline/store-b.jpg

“Chicago” by Carl Sandburg 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 a Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Carl Sandburg in Hardhat Visiting Workers Photograph by Leonard Bass 1957 Carl Sandburg believed that all the great work of society is accomplished through the work of many. In Chicago Poems, published in 1918, he explains this in a poem entitled, I Am the People, the Mob in the first few stanzas: 'I am the people-the mob-the crowd-the mass. Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me? I am the workingman, the inventer, the maker of the world's food and clothes. I am the audience that witnesses history.' Again, some 23 years later he writes about this in his epic poem, The People, Yes. Norman Corwin, a famous radio broadcaster said of Sandburg's poem, "examine the original The People, Yes {TPY} and see if CS {Carl Sandburg} is writing about an American, or even a country. The thing that makes it great is that he is writing about all people everywhere." (Niven, p 545) Paper. L 20.5, W 25.4 cm Website: http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/carl/america/visionary/CARL7934CSlongshoremanbyleonardbass.html&usg

Carl Sandburg as a young man Carl Sandburg's 1916 "Chicago" is one of the best known works of 20th century American literature. Included in countless anthologies, this poem made famous the description of Chicago as "City of the Big Shoulders," celebrating its role at the time as the industrial capital of the United States.

Chicago: Hog butcher of the world Chicago was the hog—and cattle—butcher for the world. Image courtesy U.S. Library of Congress.

Here is the elderly poet with a disheveled Marilyn Monroe

Current Map of Chicago

Wrigley Field

The Loop

The Board of Trade

Michigan Avenue, Chicago

Chicago on Saint Patrick’s Day!

Apostrophe A literary device in which a speaker or narrator directly addresses a person or a thing. For example, in the poem “Chicago” Carl Sandburg addresses the city as if it were a person: “They tell me you are wicked and I believed them.” Find another example in the poem.

Personification Figurative language in which a non-human subject is given human qualities. Find an example of this in “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg.

Assignment Visually represent Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago” Select three images that really bring the poem to life – illustrate these and quote the poem to guide your reader and viewer through your representation Select three literary devices that we have studied (include apostrophe) and visually illustrate these as well Your final drawing should have six images and quotes to go along with it