Chicago

Chicago
By Carl Sandburg

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of 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 the women and children I have seen the marks of
         wanton hunger.
And having answered so 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 lifted head singing so
         proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job,
         here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft
         cities;
Fierce 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 smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
           white teeth,
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 is the heart of the people,
                  Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-
            naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker,
            Stacker of Wheat, Player with the Railroads and Freight
            Handler to the Nation.