Metaphors In Chicago By Carl Sandburg

Has it ever occurred to you that cities learn and develop similarly to how a person matures as he or she learns? A person goes through things as they grow and learn from their mistakes which causes them to mature over time. A city acts similarly to a young person in that it goes through problems. When facing these problems the people of the city fix them and find ways to prevent them from happening again as if it is maturing. This is what Carl seemed to see from his experiences in Chicago. Since living in Chicago, Carl Sandburg grew to love the young vibrant city and he describes it by comparing it to a young person in his poem “Chicago”.

One universal theme in the poem “Chicago” is that the city shares some of the vibrant, active, and flawed

characteristics of a young man. The poem says, “Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs”(Sandburg line 26). “By using this comparison, [Carl] tries to justify that Chicago has many qualities which are there in an immature young man. Both are vibrant and active. But at the same time both have many flaws” (D’Souza). People grow and mature as time passes. This evidence explains how Sandburg uses personification to describe Chicago as a person learning and developing. A person’s characteristics change from childhood to adulthood, because of that person's experiences.
Carl uses several metaphors in his “Chicago” poem to show how the characteristics of the city relate to those of a young man.

Some include laughing with white teeth, laughing under the terrible burden of destiny, and laughing like an ignorant fighter (Sandburg). Personification is used to describe Chicago as a young man laughing carelessly, because he has not faced any serious problems, making him ignorant. “Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle” compares Chicago to a human that has not had experience with facing problems and so they laugh at others facing problems not knowing what it is like (Sandburg line 27). Ignorance is the effect of inexperience. Through literary devices, this poet has used characteristics of a person growing to describe the cultivation of

Chicago.
Chicago is personified in Carl’s poem which is partly because of some of the metaphors he uses.

One example is, “Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse and under his ribs the heart of the people” (Sandburg line 28). This means that the city is alive and beating like a heart because of the busy people constantly moving in the city. “[Carl] experimented with images that showed readers he was a voice of (in his words) the ‘people—the mob—the crowd—the mass’” (“Chicago”37-39). Carl wanted to express that the city is the people and he did so in this way. Carl uses certain literary devices to connect some characteristics of Chicago with those of humans to personify the city and make it seem as if Chicago is alive.

Carl Sandburg’s main reason for writing came to him when he moved his family to Chicago in 1912. The poem’s reason for being is because of “Sandburg’s love affair with Chicago which he has portrayed through his Chicago Poems” (D’Souza). As stated in this research article, Carl Sandburg’s reason for writing his “Chicago” poems was his love for the city. Carl felt that even though the city had some lower parts and places, he saw the wonderful things in the city and defended it against anyone who criticized it. He was very passionate about the city and clearly showed it in his

poem.
The poem was also influenced by Carl’s “passionate advocate of social justice and equality”(Neven). Carl pointed out that he had seen unsavory things like poverty, crime, and prostitution because he wanted to show both sides of the argument as well as display some problems that should be fixed. After discussing the more deplorable parts of Chicago, he defends the city by saying “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning” (Sandburg lines 14-15). He means that he is asking everyone who is criticizing Chicago if they have ever seen a city that is as proud to be what it is as Chicago. Sandburg was very proud of the city himself.
Carl had a job as “a journalist at the Chicago Daily News” which influenced his way of writing (Neven). As he was used to writing in journalistic form and for news articles his poem “Chicago” sometimes showed some socialist ideas. This caused his poem to have a bias in it which was clearly seen as he says that he so strongly defends his city. He wrote in free verse instead of as a stereotypical poet. Chicago was unlike most poems which are rhyming and rhythmic.
As a world-famous poet, Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago” introduced his 1914 city in a form that was interpreted by many young Americans as a place they wanted to live, visit, and enjoy. The city still has corruption, awkward politics, and much of the crime but is still the city of big shoulders as he said it. Though the poem was written over 100 years ago, it still rings true today.