Chicago

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:

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 cun-

    ning.

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,

    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,

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.

Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.The lyrical form of this poem is unrhyming.