Download Carl Sandburg Chicago Poem Background. Chicago, the poem that helped establish his reputation, was published in poetry magazine two years before that. Selections from chicago poems by carl sandburg (1916).
Sandburg found beauty and glory in the simple america that surrounded him:
Carl sandburg's chicago is more than a poem. I first read carl sandburg in the fall of 1998, while i was visiting chicago (i went to college at northwestern in nearby evanston from 1991 to 1995). The first five lines usually remain stable but then for the rest of the poem, the speaker slugs back with a brutal repudiation that makes all those ugly characteristics seem like badges of honor. Inscribed to my wife and pal, lillian steichen sandburg.