What Is The Mood Of The Poem Chicago

During the publication of “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg, Chicago was the largest city in the Midwest which established itself as an industrial metropolis with a population that doubled every twenty years. However, the city’s accomplishments were often hidden behind its rising crime rates and poor working conditions. In the poem “Chicago,” Carl Sandburg aims to defend the greatness of Chicago through images of the city throughout each part of the poem.

Sandburg introduces “Chicago” by simply providing a concise description of the city as a bustling and laborious. He opens with a list of different industries the city is known for, such as “Hog Butcher for the World,” “Tool Maker,” “Stacker of Wheat,” and “Player with Railroads.” By diving right

into describing different industries Chicago, Sandburg brings it immediately to life while presenting their significance. These descriptions are lifelike because Sandburg chose to list the actions required with the industry instead of the occupational names. Also by listing the occupations, he subsequently compares Chicago to other cities, presenting how different its labor induced industry is compared to cities like New York, who is known for publications and finances. He also depicts the industries’ significance through presenting them as titles. When describing other occupational titles, such as Doctor or Professor, the title is capitalized. Sandburg highlights the title’s significance simply through capitalizing, which promotes the titles that would have seemed insignificant. Sandburg continues with the line “Stormy, husky, brawling,” which points to how the city is loud, big, and in constant motion. Sandburg then describes Chicago as a “City of Big Shoulders,” further personifying the city as a big labor town. He creates an image of a person whose shoulders have grown under the weight of work and burden through this description.
As his poem continues, it changes from plain description to the narration being presented in first person. Sandburg utilizes the first person narration to draw the audience in and establish a one-on-one interaction as he depicts Chicago’s burden as the reputation the city holds. Sandburg not only states one of the city’s reputation as its corruption and violence, but he describes exactly how Chicago is corrupt and violent. He presents how the city is wicked through the image of “painted women under the under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.” Not only does he constructs an image of a woman, but a woman whose makeup, painted on so thick, it is visible under the dim, yellow light in the dark night. By using this description, he creates a more spine-chilling description of the street corners prostitutes hung around for tricks. Sandburg then illustrates how the city is crooked through how he has “seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.” With this, he presents the cynical nature of how, though a man is known to be a killer, he is still free to run amuck through the streets. Sandburg also displays how the city is brutal through: “On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.” Sandburg generates an image of both women and children, their skin sunk in hunger, draped in dirt and ragged clothes. Through these vivid images, the corruption and violence in Chicago’s reputation is undeniable.
Sandburg, however, does not linger on the negative side of Chicago’s reputation, but rather shifts his tone to depict the city’s positive attributes.

The shift is first present when Sandburg turns to “sneer” at those “who sneer at this my city,” to show the narrator as taking a fighting stance, preparing for his side of the argument. Sandburg then begins describing the greatness of Chicago by challenging the audience to “show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive.” By describing this, Sandburg personifies the city to represent how the residents of Chicago live with “lifted heads” despite the earlier description of the city’s corruption. Yet, the narrator is shown more in taking the defensive in the argument by requesting his audience to, again, compare Chicago to another city. And with the descriptions of the city as “Flinging magnetic curses,” “laughing as a young man laughs,” and “Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,” Sandburg personifies the city as young and immature. Not only does Sandburg specifically describes Chicago as “a young man,” but he relies upon the audience’s knowledge that it is more likely for a younger person to “Fling magnetic curses” than an elderly person. Also, he relies on the knowledge that mature people more commonly use a larger variety of language and do not often let swears fly off their tongues. Plus, “an ignorant fighter” “who has never lost a battle” has never had the time to gain the maturity and knowledge of accepting defeat, which, again, hints to the city as being young. Sandburg contributes more to the personification as Chicago being a young man through the descriptions of it as “a tall bold slugger” and “dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth.” But through these descriptions, he establishes a more vivid image as the young man’s personality as hardworking and never accepting defeat. Based upon the industries described earlier in the poem, many of the

occupations cause their workers to return home, faces darkened with dust and dirt caking under their nails. By describing Chicago with “dust all over his mouth,” Sandburg again connects the city back to its workers. He also associates Chicago with the word “slugger” instead of fighter to generate an image of a strong, burly man. Sandburg also presents the city as “Shoveling,/ Wrecking,/ Planning,/ Building, breaking, rebuilding” to display the city’s constant movement toward innovation. By doing so, he relates the personified actions to how the population constantly grows, so there needs to be a way to fit all the new people in. And Chicago does that by breaking buildings down to build bigger, only to break those down to create even bigger. But, most of all, Sandburg describes Chicago as “Laughing.” He does this to describe how Chicago enjoys everything in its city. How even amongst the “amid the toil of piling job on job,” the city, or more so the people living in it, thrive in every second of it. They enjoy it because despite the amount of work or challenges, the people are achieving success.
Sandburg then ends his poem just as he started it, with “Hog Butcher for the World,” “Tool Maker,” “Stacker of Wheat,” and “Player with Railroads.” However, this time as he describes what Chicago is known for, he states how this is what the city has accomplished despite everything. How despite its reputation, as corrupt and violent, and its challenges, Chicago is still a “Hog Butcher,” “Tool Maker,” “Stacker,” and “Player with Railroads.” And most of all, by ending this way, Sandburg revisits the idea that Chicago is a “city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive” and will continue to be so.