Carl Sandburg Chicago Sparknotes

Carl Sandburg born January 6, 1878, was an American poet, writer, and editor who won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely regarded as a major figure in literature, especially for volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems from 1916, Cornhuskers from 1918, and Smoke and Steel from 1920. He enjoyed "unrivaled appeal as a poet in his day, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life", and at his death in 1967, many people observed that Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America (Carl Sandburg).
3) The modernist era was alive
One of Sandburg’s poems, “Chicago”, begins when the speaker addresses the city of Chicago with five short lines. He calls Chicago a series of names; it's a "Hog Butcher", a "Toolmaker", and a "Stacker of Wheat". The Chicago that the speaker personifies is burly and tough. Then, in longer lines, the speaker describes the life of the city. A mysterious "they" tells the speaker that Chicago is "wicked," "crooked," and "brutal," and the speaker agrees with all of these judgments. He has seen prostitutes, killers, and starving families. But the speaker responds to this "they" and pronounces Chicago is "so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning." It's a vibrant and dynamic city, and the speaker finds beauty in it, despite its dark corners. The speaker then describes Chicago again in a series of short lines. Chicago is constantly "building, breaking, rebuilding." This is the life cycle of the city. Then the speaker describes Chicago even further. The city almost becomes the very people who inhabit it. The city feels the pulse and the "the heart of the people." In the last line of "Chicago," the speaker repeats the first few phrases of the poem. He once again calls Chicago "Hog Butcher" and "Tool Maker,"(Chicago) and he says that the city is proud to have these names. Chicago, you rock, the poem says (Carl