“Chicago” by Carl Sandburg

Personification

Carl Sandburg 1878-1967

» 1916 Sandburg wrote the poem in 1916.

Chicago

Freight trains

Freight cars

Chicago

Personification

• Giving human traits to something not human.

• Ex: The wheels whined.

• Ex. City of the big shoulders

wanton

• done, shown, used, etc., maliciously or unjustifiably: a wanton attack; wanton cruelty.

• 2. deliberate and without motive or provocation; uncalled-for; headstrong; willful: Why jeopardize your career in such a wanton way?

Free Verse is a poem that doesn’t rhyme.

• No rhyme, but still rhythm.

rhythm

• Stressed and unstressed syllables

• Listen my children and you shall hear

• Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere

apostrophe

• apostrophe: a direct address of an inanimate object, abstract qualities, or a person not living or present.

Example: "Beware, O Asparagus, you've stalked my last meal."

Urban life

Chicago-City of the big shoulders

Theme of progress vs. disillusionment

Blue Collar Worker

White Collar

Blue vs. White Collar

Personification in Chicago

• Big shoulders• Husky• No hat/bareheaded• Dust all over his mouth• Laughing• Singing• With lifted head• Half naked• Sweating• White teeth• Building, shoveling, …

#1 Decide your city:Beverly Hills

• Rodeo Drive Shopping poodles• Fake Boobs Paris Hilton expensive• Movie Stars Fake Blonds Chanel #5• Rich Louis Vuitton golden toilets• Designer Clothes Palm trees green grass• Sunshine, little dogs, Gucci, expensive cars,• Fake tans, hair salon, Sax Fifth Avenue, Tiffanys, Plastic

surgery• Mansions luxurious • Tourists • Botox• Ferraris, … # Step 2 Brainstorm 25+

25 characteristics of Beverly Hills

• Wealthy, mansions, white, fancy restaurants, movie maker, expensive stores and cars, famous people, designer fashion, private, Jewish, Rodeo Drive, Money, poodles, clean, Republicans, fake people, gardens, snobby, manicured lawns,

Step 3

• Decide how you want to personify your city.

• Barbie doll old lady (Joan Rivers)

Beverly Hills

Designer shopper for the world

Movie Maker, Stacker of $100 bills

Player with Botox and the Nation’s tanning salon provider

Fake, rich, snobby

City of the aged plastic looking Barbie

Beverly Hills Personified

Steps

• Step 1 Decide your city• Step 2 Brainstorm 25 associations with the city.• Step 3 Decide how you want your city to be

personified. (How will you draw the city?)• Step 4 Write the rough draft• Step 5 Type the final draft and print two copies.• Step 6 Draw the picture.

• New York City• Overseer for the World,• Trend Maker, Stacker of Banknotes• Player of fate, and the Nation’s Big Screen Capital• City of the Insomnia• They tell me you are ruthless and I believe them, for I have seen your• stock brokers in their exchanges playing dice with peoples futures• And they me you are careless and I answer : Yes, it is true I have seen• the gang member kill and go free to commit crime again• And they tell me you are merciless and my reply is: On the faces of • taxi drivers, office workers, and bums I have seen the marks of • suffocation in this city of traps and vice• 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 place with constant focus, straight on ahead, so • proud to be endowed with such an honorable place in the world.• Flinging your bets in amid the sea of skeptics and crimes here is a daring • adventures set vivid against the merciful, careful, so clever city• Suit Fitted• Eyes Exhausted • Head Bent• But Still Determined• Under the towering pillars of hope, joy all over his face laughing with ecstasy,• Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing eternally, • Laughing even as the youth laughs who has never known failure• Grinning and Laughing that under his ribs is the beat of human kind• and under his hair are the hopes and thoughts• Laughing!• Laughing the warm, friendly, confident laughter of an ambitious business man• grinning, proud to be an Insomniac, Trend Maker, Stacker of Bank Notes,• Player with fate and overseer of the World.

New York City student ex.

• Overseer for the World,

• Trend Maker, Stacker of Banknotes

• Player of fate, and the Nation’s

• Big Screen Capital

• Awake, jittery, intense

• City of the Insomniac