| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917. |
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| 308. Chicago |
| | | By Carl Sandburg |
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| 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: | 5 |
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| 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. | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| 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, | 20 |
| 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. | |
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