As a native New Yorker, in my mind every other city across our great American nation would seem to run a distant second to the big apple. If you've ever walked across the Brooklyn Bridge in autumn during the magic hour then you might find it difficult hard not to agree. Nonetheless Americans have a deep reverence for their cities, those that stand as the setting for the crucial moments of their lives. They all represent a living, breathing embodiment of the great human experiment that is our country. In Carl Sandburg's, "Chicago" the poet pays tribute to the main metropolis of his home state of Illinois. In spite of the town's darker or less palatable qualities, he expresses an affection for the urban center of the midwest. Through use of personification and rough simile Sandburg pays homage to his city's imperfect beauty and which in turn represents the similar but wider view of his country.
As a poet, Sandburg has was often dismissed by critics of his time that found writing too simplistically using a common almost spoken language but in "Chicago" it is altogether effective and ultimately necessary to personify his fair city. He famously commented about his distinct working class poetic voice, " "I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass. Did you know that all the work of the world is done through me?" The poem, "Chicago" is direct example of how the poet represents the working masses of the urban landscape. The windy city is the broad-shouldered male worker, "Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler". Chicago accepts is responsible for large part of the nations meat packing, tool making, etc., and also acts as the central hub for freight shipping. Sandburg's city is large in size but also in stature. This opening stanza depicts a man of strength and industry that the nation and even the world depends on.
Sandburg does not stop by praising the industrious economic contributions of his city. Like a man speaking frankly to a friend in a bar about his reputation the poet admits he has heard the stories of his less than commendable nature. In a list of similar points, the poet says, "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." He has heard and seen for his own eyes that the city is crooked with its murderous crime, wicked with prostitution, brutal with poverty.
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