Poetry Slam!: "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg's tribute to the Windy City is both a grandly panoramic and a microscopically detailed examination of urban life. Read the full text here.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. freight
    goods carried by a large vehicle
    HOG Butcher for the World,
    Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
    Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
    Sandburg structures these descriptions like the epithets of the Greek gods to emphasize that "Hog Butcher of the World" or "Nation's Freight Handler" should deserve as much respect as "Lightning-Wielder" or "Protector of Cities".
  2. husky
    muscular and heavily built
    Stormy, husky, brawling,
    City of the Big Shoulders:
    "Husky" also means "deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness or emotion"--both definitions fit because 1) the chosen definition connects to the description of big shoulders; 2) the second definition is more obvious when the list of adjectives is repeated at the end of the poem and connected to descriptions of laughing and bragging.
  3. brawl
    a noisy fight in a crowd
    Stormy, husky, brawling,
    City of the Big Shoulders:
  4. lure
    provoke someone to do something through persuasion
    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.
  5. brutal
    able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
    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.
  6. wanton
    behave extremely cruelly and brutally
    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.
    Although the chosen definition is for "wanton" as a verb, it is being used as an adjective in the example sentence. As a noun and adjective, "wanton" often connects to loose sexual behavior, which is suggested in the same stanza. But to describe the hunger of women and children, the best definition of "wanton" is "cruel and brutal".
  7. sneer
    a facial expression of contempt or scorn
    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:
  8. coarse
    lacking refinement or cultivation or taste
    Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
    so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
    "Coarse" also means "rough to the touch" and "of low or inferior quality or value"--none of these definitions seem to be something to be proud of. But the focus is on the strength to survive harsh conditions, which contrasts with the soft ease that comes from living in a refined, cultivated, high-class city.
  9. cunning
    showing inventiveness and skill
    Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
    so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
  10. fling
    throw with force or recklessness
    Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
    job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
    little soft cities;
  11. toil
    productive work, especially physical work done for wages
    Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
    job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
    little soft cities;
  12. slugger
    a boxer noted for an ability to deliver hard punches
    Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
    job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
    little soft cities;
    A slugger is also a hard-hitting baseball player. Against other cities, Chicago could be seen as harder, bolder and more vivid because of its connections to boxing, baseball, and blue-collar jobs.
  13. fierce
    marked by extreme and violent energy
    Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
    as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
  14. burden
    weight to be carried or borne
    Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
    man laughs,
  15. destiny
    the ultimate agency predetermining the course of events
    Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
    man laughs,
  16. ignorant
    uneducated in general; lacking knowledge or sophistication
    Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
    never lost a battle,
  17. pulse
    the rate at which the heart beats
    Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
    and under his ribs the heart of the people,
  18. youth
    the freshness and vitality of someone not yet old
    Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
    Youth, half-naked, sweating,
Created on Wed Jun 05 19:08:19 EDT 2013 (updated Wed Aug 01 15:55:19 EDT 2018)

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