Professor Wexler
English 495esm
12 September 2012
The Second City
As a native New Yorker, every other city across our great America seems 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 hard not to agree. Nonetheless, Americans have a deep reverence for their cities, those that stand as the setting for the 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 major 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 Sandburg, lets the rougher parts represent the whole imperfect beauty of his Chicago. Through this personification, he conveys a pride in his city and which in turn represents a similar but wider view of his country.
As a poet, Sandburg was often dismissed by critics of his time that found his writing too simplistic in his use of a common workaday spoken language. But in "Chicago", the speech of an everyday laborer is both effective and ultimately necessary to personify his fair city. Sandburg 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 Sandburg as 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 responsibility for a large part of the nations meat packing, tool making, and also acts as the central hub for freight shipping. Sandburg's city is large in size but also in stature. The opening stanza of the poem depicts a man of strength and industry on whom the world depend. Though he is also a man that is not only "husky" but "brawling." The implication is that the city is an intimidating and violently forceful man, a man respected often out of fear, if not just for sheer size.
The poet does not stop after listing the industrious economic contributions of his city or describing it's enormity. Like a man speaking frankly to a friend in a bar about his reputation, the poet admits he has heard the stories of the city's less than commendable nature. In a list of similar points, the poet continues his apostrophe, "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 and addresses the city like a brother. It is not that he is blind to the savage parts of society, but rather that Sandburg sees them as elements necessary to the whole portrait of the city. Such cruelties do not deter the poet from continuing to speak in a loving defense of the town. He begs for people who look down upon or mock this city, for its lowlier natures, to show him a city "so proud to be alive" or in all of its rugged strength. Like pioneers against the wilderness of the frontier, this metropolis must face and often times cause it's own reckless violence and destruction in order to build upon itself. The city is fiercely building, wrecking and rebuilding. It thrives on the individual's fight to survive in a world where murderers walk free, prostitutes stand on the corners and children go hungry. The people are strong and therefore the city as a whole is strong.
The Chicago of the time Sandburg writes is a "tall bold slugger" in comparison to the smaller weaker cities. The personification is coupled with a simile towards the end of the poem in a repetitive cadence that conjures the cadences of Walt Whitman. The poet describes his city as, "Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle." There is a joy in being a tough town of hard working people. The town laughs in the face of the difficult tasks at hand. The town is "half-naked, sweating," proud to have the purpose of being "Hog Butcher" or "Freight Handler to the Nation." In spite of the sweaty burden of a working class lot in life the city takes pride in being an integral part of the life of the nation.
Just as Sandburg refers to the specific industries and the hard physical and social characteristics to represent the greater whole of Chicago, he uses his fair city to present an image of America. As a reporter for a few Chicago newspapers in the early decades of the 20th century, Sandburg mostly covered labor disputes. His stories as his poems gave voice to the common man. In Sandburg's view, the working class were the ones to build his country and for that they needed to be heard. The injustices and unfair treatment of labor forces in Chicago were representative of the rest of the growing industrialized country. The poem "Chicago" speaks to the rough workers and the aspects of their hard earned survival. They are under what the poet calls, "the terrible burden of destiny." With smoke and dust covering them, these workers are the heart of the city, and are also representative of a country working to become the greatest industrialized nation in the world. All cities might not exude all of the hard headed strength of Sandburg's beloved Chicago, but the characteristic runs throughout the United States at a time when its cities were expanding upwards and outwards. The pride in one's own work as a contribution to the society, that is the city, extends out to the greatness of America. As the immigrants continue to come in waves during this period in our history Sandburg speaks of the tremendous joy of the strain of building. America laughs as Chicago does, while gritting teeth and digging into the work will define it for generations. Sandburg in an interview with Frederick Van Ryn of This Week Magazine in 1953, famously said, “I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.” This specific will and vision is present in his Chicago nearly forty years prior. It is a lasting urban center, that through its strength sees a bright future through the back-breaking work of the present. The promise of America is echoed in this depiction of second city.
Our pride in our city bring us a pride in our country and this expressed in the poem, "Chicago." Through his typical use of a common workaday language, Sandburg personifies the town as a strong man that with a sense of both joy and pride accepts the heavy responsibility of shouldering the world. This serves as clear example of a distinctly American spirit of the time. As Americans our home towns with love and admiration. Whichever shining city on the hill we hold dear, somewhere we feel it displays the essence of our country.
Works Cited
Callahan, North. Carl Sandburg: His Life and Works. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1987. Print.
"Carl Sandburg." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/carl-sandburg>.
Sandburg, Carl. ""Chicago"" 100 Best-loved Poems. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. N. pag. Print.
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