Read the poem below. What is the theme of the poem? In other words, what do you think that the poet is trying to say about Chicago? Give two examples from the poem in your explanation.
"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 cunning.
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.
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the poet is trying to tell the reader that Chicago is the best city because in the story it said that "Chicago Hog butcher of the world. The poet is also trying to say that Chicago is not a wicked city and it is strong because it said that people that are not that good are strong in the city of Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI think that the theme of the poem is that Chicago is very working because in the poem it says” Maker of tools, Stacker of wheat, City of big shoulders, Building, Breaking , Rebuilding.” I think this means that Chicago does a lot of things because in the poem we build, break, and rebuild.
ReplyDeleteAnd having answered so I turn once more to those who
ReplyDeletesneer 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.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
the name of the poem is Chicago. what the poet is trying to say about Chicago is that Chicago is a very good place to live or to visit.''They tell me you are wicked and I believe them''. ''Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked,sweating, proud to be Hog
ReplyDeleteButcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.''
the poem is explaining how to not be a dirty man and save our planet.and also how to get the place clean and never dirty our planet so that why the poem was explaning about how to clean our world and be a safe place and city so that what the poem was talking about the poem the teacher wrote.
ReplyDeleteWhat the author is trying to say is that Chicago can sometimes be a good place and sometimes can be a bad place but he's saying that it's good to live in our city he's trying to attract attention so some peple can move in and see how wonderful this place can be but he's also describing how it can be when bad thing's happen too but he wants peple to move here to see how people can spend time togethere.
ReplyDeleteit was about how can Chicago get better with no one smoking with a person having white teeth.
ReplyDeletein my opinion................
i think that this will be a great poem to show the people to stop smoking i think it will get better if thy don't smoke so that the world would be so smart clean and also safe and come i think it will be great if people does not smoke at all so they could be healthy and smart.
I think the poem is trying to say that the city of Chicago is always so busy, that it never settles down. That it’s always awake and it’s never quiet.
ReplyDeleteThe poem is in a city, otherwise known as Chicago. The author is trying to say that chicago is a very bad place to be, with murders and nastyness.
ReplyDeleteThe poem is tring to say that Chicago is a city that has many sights and many news and trouble and opputidy and enough to go around the windy city is says it Bareheaded Shoveling Wrecking Planning Building breaking rebuilding Undre the smoke under terrible burden and many more and it saying that city of the shoulders meaning big city with amazing places to visit and it land of opputidy
ReplyDeleteI think that the author is trying to say what goes on in Chicago. By telling us the sounds and the things that go on like for example constructing a lot and its always being loud. Not ever being quiet there is always something going on even if it’s not constructing. And how’s there so much to look at when you come here.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of the poem is that though no one appreciates his home he points out all the good out of it. He points out how even though it truly is as bad as it sounds it’s better than any other place they can think of. I think the author is trying to say no matter how bad somebody says Chicago is they have to admit that it is better than any other place. And I can prove this because the article even says it,” Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning, Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;” and when it says,” 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
ReplyDeleteRailroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
The poem about Chicago I think that it shows most of the work that we have here like it said in the poem “HOG Butcher for the World,
ReplyDeleteTool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler”.
Also I think that it’s showing how teenagers don’t really care about anything and they are just laughing at things and that they don’t care if anything happens how I think they were showing in the poem “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!”
I also think that how people past their time laughing at things and they just don’t really care.
I think the poet is trying to tell people about Chicagon in a good way and a bad way. the poet is describing the city and the people in Chicago, the poet whant to tell all the people that Chicago is a good placeb to be living or visiting any time, the poet thinks Chicago is a good city that the poet made a peom about the famous 'city of wind"
ReplyDeleteThat no matter what happends they are proud of their nation. As they are proud one example is,come and show me another city with lifted head singing
ReplyDeleteso proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. And the other is,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.
i think the theme of the poem is that even though chicago is known as a bad city, others see much more. i think in the poets mind chicago is more than a bad city. accarding to the poem"and having anwerd so i turn once more to those who sneer at this city,and i give them back the sneer.
ReplyDeleteI think that the theme of this poem was that Chicago is one of the main and biggest cities today. In the poem it states, “Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the big shoulders,” and I think that this means that Chicago withstands pretty tough days no matter the type of strength its predator or object has. Another thing is that this city is a very big for many people to travel in and enjoy.
ReplyDeletei Think the poem is trying to say is that the person who wrote the poem is saying that chicago is a dangerous place when they ask him chicago is the best place to be he replies yes but when he notices that thier are people shooting,people who are poor, and people who steal he thinks the other way.
ReplyDeleteI think that this poem that i read was I really nice poem i likes it because it gave a lot of details about this poem it describe thing by thing and thing.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of this poem is how dilding were distroid and how people were suffeing people were shuving and laphing and all thouse thing like that like for example. acccording to Chicago "Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
ReplyDeleteas a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding," and there is another example like "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!
The this is the last example.
I THINK ITS SAYING WELL I DONT TOTALLY UNDERSTAND IT JUST THAT I THINK IT has too do with chicago and something else to do with a killer and ntoo show some spirit
ReplyDeleteThe theme that the poem is trying to say is that the city is like a man sweating, proud to be “hog. Butcher, tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads and freight handler to the nation.” It also says he is laughing like he doesn’t care. “Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
ReplyDeleteand The theme is that it is a proud city. It works hard and is proud for work hard . The poet is under his ribs the heart of the people.”
The theme is the city is like a big man who is "Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle," it also said he is "Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,". he is a strong and a hard worker man.
ReplyDeleteI think that Chicago is a place where you work because in the poem it says "Tool maker staker of wheat"
ReplyDeleteThe theme of the poem is that people can sneer at Chicago, but we are proud to be Chicago. We laugh because it's as if they are any better. This is applicable to people in the same way. No one or no thing is perfect, so why insult what you can't beat? As a famous person once said, "If you can't beat 'em join 'em." (By the way, good poem Mr. Barr :))
ReplyDeleteI think the theme of the poem is that they are trying to say that Chicago is a place that people are very strong and mean that they have a heart that is solid. According to Chicago,” City of big shoulder “.this is saying that the city of Chicago most people in there are people that are strong. According to Chicago, “And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces if the women and children I have seen the marks of the Walton hunger”. This is saying that that people are brutal in Chicago and they don’t care about people that are hobos and are hungry and they are cold.
ReplyDeleteI think the theme is that Chicago has lots of different kind of people. That it’s full of interesting people. I think it is trying to say that lots of people are different if you think about it.
ReplyDeleteI think that the poet is trying to say that even though there is cruelty in Chicago there is also hope and opportunity. I think that the poet is trying to say that about Chicago because in the poem he said that he’s seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. Another thing that he said in the poem was that he sneered back at the people who sneer at his city and he tells them to go and show him another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
ReplyDeleteI think the poem is saying a good and bad thing. It’s saying that Chicago is brutal, tough, cruel, and wicked among many other things. Then it says that even though Chicago is like that find a big city that isn’t. Even under all of its faults this is still a great city. The poem is saying that it’s a great city with many faults just like any other big city. It says it is true that Chicago is bad and it actually is but it just wants to say so is any other city.
ReplyDeleteThe poet is trying to say that Chicago has flaws that the poet thinks needs to be expressed. I think this because in the text it states "Yes, it is true i have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again." This means that the poet is trying to explain how Chicago is by comparing it to a gunman. The poet does this to describe how Chicago can be brutal and cunning like the gunman described. Another example in this poem is when the poet give Chicago all of these characteristics. Such as bareheaded, shoveling etc.This shows that the poet thinks of Chicago as this wicked and sinister person. He does thisto add affect of the point he is trying to make. The point he is trying to make is that Chicago is a tough place but is still a good place at the same time. Like a split personality.
ReplyDeleteIt talks about how Chicago use to be a war zone because most of the poem said” Building, wreaking shoveling, Breaking, rebuilding” That what it said on the poem that Chicago use to be a war zone because all does thing that happen in Chicago use to happen before in Chicago. Then after that people start to rebuild the buildings, but know the people start to give more thing to the buildings
ReplyDeleteThe poet is trying to say that Chicago was a strong man.
ReplyDeletehe says ChiCAGO IS, "Under the smoke,duist all over his mouth with a white teeth." This makes me think of a man smiling It also saids that the man is "laughing as a young man laughs". This make me think that Chicago is a young stong man. That makes me think that this man is half- naked and sweaty like a hard worker.
The theme of this poem is that all the violence that is happening in Chicago.For example in the second paragraph it states, " it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
ReplyDeletekill again." Another theme is just talking about how Chicago is. For example in the first paragraph HOG Butcher for the World,Tool maker Stacker of Wheat.
I think the theme of the poem is that they are trying to say that Chicago is a place that people are very strong and mean that they have a heart that is solid. According to Chicago,” City of big shoulder “.this is saying that the city of Chicago most people in there are people that are strong. According to Chicago, “And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces if the women and children I have seen the marks of the Walton hunger”. This is saying that that people are brutal in Chicago and they don’t care about people that are hobos and are hungry and they are cold.
ReplyDeleteWhat i think the poem is trying to say that Chicago was once a war zone because it talks about how people where "24-28" "Bareheaded,Shoveling,Wrecking,Planning,Building,Breaking ,Rebuilding" the towers and that the theme of the poem is that Chicago has different kinds of people like when it said "10-12" "is true i have seen the gunman and go kill again "
ReplyDelete