In “Chicago” Carl Sandburg embraces everything the city has to offer, from hog butchers to railroads, construction to prostitutes. The poem made famous, with the description of Chicago as "City of the Big Shoulders," celebrates its role at the time as the industrial capital of the United States. Personification is used throughout the description of the city. It's a vibrant and dynamic city, and the speaker finds beauty in it, despite its dark corners. The poem shows all parts of the city and shows
Biographical Information Carl Sandburg, the author of the poem “Chicago,” was born in Galesburg, Illinois in 1878. His parents were Swedish immigrants and had seven children. His parents were so poor that Sandburg had to drop out of school at the age of thirteen to help support the family. He worked odd jobs and then traveled as a hobo at the age of nineteen. At the age of twenty, Sandburg served in the Spanish-American War in Puerto Rico. He returned home to work his way through college where a
one or a bad one, it still offends someone, somewhere. In Carl Sandburg's “Chicago”, he states both the ups and the downs of Chicago, and how no matter how bad the city can get, it is still his home. The fact is, home is different to different people. Someone will dislike someone else’s version of home, and someone will like it. An opinion is just that: an opinion. In Sandburg's poem, he writes about many of the qualities the city of Chicago holds, both good and bad. He describes the city as “stormy
Chicago has always been a great city, Right? Wrong, Chicago has had to jump through many hoops to get to where it is today. The city went through many hard times and had many high and lows, literally. Chicago has had many important events one of them and the most important of them all would have to be the start of Chicago. Another would have to be the infamous fire of 1871, which burned half of the city to the ground ("Timeline Chicago."). Chicago has had many great poets that have been molded there
provide any real opportunities, and if they can, they certainly are no longer capable of enabling it for others. Being open minded and a forward thinker can play a big role in whether there is success in pursuing the American Dream or not. Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago”