Carl Sandburg | Jan 1878 – Jul 1967 | American
This poem originally appeared in the March 1914 issue of Poetry magazine
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 as 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 toll of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Pierce 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 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
Freight Handler to the Nation.
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07-Nov-2011 11:43 PM