ChicagoChicago is as poem that captures how the cities of America are in that timeperiod. He addresses the city as “you”, as if it were a living person and all of the peoplethat make things happen in the city are the organs of that person. The poem has a positiveoutlook on the city of Chicago. It details the flaws and shortcomings of the city. He talksof painted women on the streets luring the farm boys, which would be women withmake-up applied heavily working the streets.
He says that they tell him the city is brutal,crooked, and wickedand that he believes them. The poem also translates into how living in the city is toilsomeand that the city is unrelenting. On the other hand it shows how the city can beprosperous and happy with the citys disadvantages. in the second half of the poem itstelling how nomatter what is wrong with the city, the people are still proud of who theyare. The theme of “Chicago” is how life in the city really is.
The Acadamy of AmericanPoets states that “Chicago is written so that the average working man can read it andthink about his surroundings rather than to become a robot from the repetitious stressconsuming him” The Carl Sandburg page says that, Oliver Wendle Holmes, a skilledrhymester, told a young poet: “When you write in prose you say what you mean, whenyou write in verse you say what you must” . In “Chicago” as well as all of Sandburgsliterature he writes what he has to write because he was once one of the workers and herealizes their needs of having something different in their everyday lives. In “The People,Yes” Lewis Gannett states that Sandburg is “The voice of America as no other Americanpoem since Walt Whitman”. The poem “Chicago” relates directly to Carl Sandburgs personal life. He has beenin the spot in which many of the people at that time were in, so he can understand how,why, and what the average city man is thinking. By using this perception he is able toenter their minds through his simple Free Verse.
He does this because he realizes what heneeded at that time in his life so he is obviously trying to give people something to ponder. Carl Sandburg was a man of many values. He understood America as it was andas it still is. The poem “Chicago” puts things into perspective for its readers. Throughreading “Chicago” observations of many aspects of Sandburgs life can be made such as;he lived at a lower to middle class for the majority of his life, excluding his younger years.
He looks down upon society wishing there were more of himself to help the others copewith the pressure that has been applied by the thumb of America. “Chicago” is the typical use of Carl Sandburgs Free Verse. This is because of thesimple use of words and punctuation. It allows for any person to read and comprehendwhat he must say. It is shown in the poem “The Grass” he illustrates how grass is likewar, it is everywhere and no matter where it is it doent change it will still be war.
Thetone of “The Grass” is written in Free Verse. It not only allows you to apply the theentirity of war but allows you to observe that no matter where it is it is the same. Thispoem also shows part of Sandburgs life. As he worked as a teen he did it for the solepurpose of providing for his family.
No matter where he worked it was still for the samereason to provide.Words/ Pages : 616 / 24
