Chicago

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 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 with 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 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 Railroads and Freight Handler to 

the Nation.

~ Carl Sandburg