"Chicago" by Carl Sandberg (poetry reading)

This poem was first published in 1916, a little earlier than Prohibition, Al Capone and the domination of the underworld: Chicago was relatively salubrious at that time.

Here's Vincent Price reading it:
http://www.vincentprice.org/audio/17%20Chicago.mp3

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.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Chicago
• Carl
• Sandberg
• poem
• poetry

[MakaveliFan95]

Carl Sandburg is the writer who first got me interested in poetry. Hearing you read this poem makes me a little more interested. Thank you so much! :)

[BenAliGtor]

My home town..4th generation. And you honor it by your splendid reading, sir.

[scifiwritir]

Another great one! Certainly better than Alicia Keyes' "New York." ;-)