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Poetry effects on society
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“Chicago,” by Carl Sandburg wrote a poem that the great city of Chicago that embraces everything that the city has to offer, from hog butchers to railroads, from construction sites to prostitutes. The poem paints a portrait of a vibrant, cunning, wicked, joyful, laughing place. The speaker begins the poem by telling the reader about all of the negative aspects of the city of Chicago but ends in the exact opposite stance. The poet feels that Chicago will face the future ready to fight and win. Sandburg can show how Chicago holds many of the same qualities as an immature young man: both are vibrant and active, but both also have many flaws. Sandburg also celebrates the many types of workers that helped the city grow, from the hog butchers that feed the populace to the people that build the
It is also gives us a features of lack of care among citizen towards the poor.
Sandburg paints a portrait of a city that is, in some ways, very human. It's flawed and it's beautiful, it's rough-and-tumble and intense. It's vibrant and multi-faceted. It turns out that the best way for Sandburg to comprehend the city is to compare it to a human being—that way, we have a tangible frame of reference for all the beautiful, strong, messiness.
The poet more than accepts the failings of his city, however; he answers in the remaining lines with a list of positive attributes. His city is singing and loud.
Chicago by Carl Sandburg is one of the most amusing poems that I read recently. This poem tells us about a metropolitan city; Chicago, which is situated in United States of America. The poet seems to do a lot of critics about his own city but fortunately, he still show some respect and being proud of his own
of the city as we read, but Whitehead’s ultimate goal is to depict the effect that a
The phrase, "small Midwestern towns," often brings to mind an unfortunate stereotype in the minds of big-city urbanites: mundane, backward people in a socially unappealing and legally archaic setting. Small Midwestern towns, however, are not all the hovels of provincial intellect that they are so frequently made out to be. The idiosyncrasies each of them possesses are lost on those who have never taken more than a passing glance at them.
“The Weary Blues” and “Lenox Avenue: Midnight” by Langston Hughes are two poems written as scenes of urban life. Although these poems were written more than seventy years ago, it is surprising to see some general similarities they share with modern day city life. Dilluted down with word play and irrelevant lines such as “And the gods are laughing at us.”, the underlying theme is evidently urban life. “The Weary Blues” and “Lenox Avenue: Midnight” approach the general topic of urban life from two different aspects also.
The first criteria I want to go through is the common element shared by both the author and the poem, particularly the effects of the Industrial Revolution and the gap between the richest and poorest of the people. At the time that Carl Sandburg was writing “Chicago” he was living, ironically, in Chicago working as an editorial writer for the Chicago daily news. While there he was married Lillian Steichen, who he called Paula. At the time he was 38 and only just starting to have his work published. The first of which was published by Harriet Monroe for Poetry: a magazine of verse.
Nothing compares to the hustle and bustle of the city at night. As you walk up and down the streets of any city, you make your way through a crowd that should be sleeping, walking to the beat of the subway below them. Each city is unique in the way it comes alive. The movement of the city is brought to life by Ann Petry in the novel, The Street. Petry uses strong imagery to show the bitterness of the cold wind and personification to bring the scraps of paper along the sidewalk of the city alive. The reader watches as the life of scraps of paper and wind blowing down alleyways connects Lutie Johnson to the city. Petry walks us with Lutie Johnson as she experiences a cold November night near seventh and eighth avenue.
[7] Neal Bowers. "The City Limits: Frank O'Hara's Poetry". Frank O'Hara: To Be True to a City, ed. Jim Elledge, University of Michigan Press, 1990 (321).
Just look at the quote I gave you earlier: “Brooklyn, New York, as the undefined, hard-to–remember the shape of a stain.” He sees it as nothing but a stain on the map. He goes on to talk about “…the sludge at the bottom of the canal causes it to bubble.” Giving us something we can see, something we can hear because you can just imagine being near the canal and hearing the sludge bubble make their popping noises as the gas is released. He “The train sounds different – lighter, quieter—in the open air,” when it comes from underground and the sight he sees on the rooftops. Although some are negative, such as the sagging of roofs and graffiti, his tone towards the moment seems to be admiration. In the second section, he talks about the smells of Brooklyn and the taste of food. He’d talk about how his daughter compares the tastes of pizzas with her “…stern judgments of pizza. Low end… New Hampshire pizza. … In the middle… zoo pizza. …very top… two blocks from our house,” and different it was where he’d grown up. He talks about the immense amount of “smells in Brooklyn: Coffee, fingernail polish, eucalyptus…” and how other might hate it, but he enjoys it. In the same section, he describes how he enjoys the Brooklyn accent and the noise and smells that other people make on the streets and at the park across from his house. “Charcoal smoke drifts into the
Both stories identify that Chicago has had its faults and reasons, which had lead to its downfall. In the poem “Chicago,” Sandburg acknowledges that Chicago is in atrocious place filled with crime with several examples. “They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen you painted women under gas
The unity of nature and the city is a difficult thing to merge together. Although Pound made a valiant effort in trying to combine the two were in vain. Pound took the city underground and in turn was missing out on all the wonders that were just a couple feet above. Man tried to separate himself from force of the natural world, but no matter how much concrete was placed on the walls life would still find a way to grow. Sandburg on the other hand beautifully mixed nature and the city like coffee and creamer. The fog would slowly drift over the city like a pet cat slowly walking across the living room. They both happen without warning, but we accept it and embrace the beauty. The unity between nature and the industrialized world in “Fog” is superior at interlocking the two units with such elegance.
The article discusses the need for these early Chicago saloons as a neighborhood commune for those men who labor long hours only to come home to poverty and despair of a desolate household. Melendy focuses on the mental, physiological, and moral nature of these workingmen. He points out that this saloon culture allows it’s patrons to develop these traits by interacting with their peers—others facing the same despair. These establishments are described as the “workingman’s school. He is both scholar and teacher” (Melendy pg. 78). Patrons gather at the bar, around tables and in the next room amongst games of pool, cards, and darts to discuss political and social problems, sporting news, and other neighborhood gossip. Here men, native and immigrant, exchange opinions and views of patriotism, brotherhood, and lessons in civil government. Melendy describes this atmosphere as cosmopolitan, and articulates that these businesses advertise this issue in their names. For example one of the downtown saloons was entitled “Everybody’s Exchange.” The saloon’s customers experienced a buffet of nationalities upon which was not so for those of poverty in previous decades. Saloons also served as disguises of corruption as Melendy illustrates by declaring “...
The shift is first present when Sandburg turns to “sneer” at those “who sneer at this my city,” to show the narrator as taking a fighting stance, preparing for his side of the argument. Sandburg then begins describing the greatness of Chicago by challenging the audience to “show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive.” By describing this, Sandburg personifies the city to represent how the residents of Chicago live with “lifted heads” despite the earlier description of the city’s corruption. Yet, the narrator is shown more in taking the defensive in the argument by requesting his audience to, again, compare Chicago to another city. And with the descriptions of the city as “Flinging magnetic curses,” “laughing as a young man laughs,” and “Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,” Sandburg personifies the city as young and immature. Not only does Sandburg specifically describes Chicago as “a young man,” but he relies upon the audience’s knowledge that it is more likely for a younger person to “Fling magnetic curses” than an elderly person. Also, he relies on the knowledge that mature people more commonly use a larger variety of language and do not often let swears fly off their tongues. Plus, “an ignorant fighter” “who has never lost a battle” has never had the time to gain the maturity and knowledge of accepting defeat, which, again, hints to the city as being young. Sandburg contributes more to the personification as Chicago being a young man through the descriptions of it as “a tall bold slugger” and “dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth.” But through these descriptions, he establishes a more vivid image as the young man’s personality as hardworking and never accepting defeat. Based upon the industries described earlier in the poem, many of the
James Howard Kunstler is an American author and is best known for his books on urban life and cities. His book The City in Mind is about the innerworkings and history of some of the most famous cities in the world and is a very fascinating narrative on urban life and city history. Kunstler talks about many different cities such as Paris, Atlanta, Mexico City, Las Vegas, and several others. The author reveals a lot about what he thinks makes a city great and what can lead to a failed city. The City in Mind shows readers how some of the greatest cities were created and how some failed which can be crucial for planning future cities and a lot can be learned from reading this book. Kunstler does not exactly tell you whether a city is bad or good.
The first similarity presented in “Chicago” and “Skyscraper” is the description of a lively metropolis. In “Skyscraper” Sandburg describes the skyscraper, which symbolizes the city of Chicago, by writing, “It is the men and women...that give the building a soul of dreams and thoughts and memories" (3). The display of liveliness is the building being described as having dreams, thoughts, and memories because those are characteristics that only live things have such as human beings. In “Chicago” Sandburg says, “come and show me…another city so p...
Colson Whitehead ponders the essence of New York in his collection of essays titled, The Colossus of New York. Throughout the entire collection of essaysWhitehead inquires about what New York stands for based on the journey’s of its inhabitants and visitors. By establishing a sense of authenticity and creating an intimate relationship between him and the reader, Whitehead effectively provides his readers with a genuine account of New York. This genuineness found in Whitehad’s writing has not been met without criticism. Wyatt Mason’s critique of Whitehead’s essays reiterates throughout the review that Whitehead’s account go New York isn’t unique to New York and that the essayist isn’t particularly attentive to detail. While I agree with the
Carl Sandburg chooses to point out the bad yet looks on the bright side of things. “Throughout the book, the poet is strangely like his city. There is the mixture of a gigantic, youthful personality and an older alien will to mount” (Untermeyer). This quote says that Carl Sandburg has been more wise in his later poems especially in “Chicago”. He has been more positive looking at the darkness i parts of the world. “On the faces of the women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger...Come and show me another with lifted heading singing so proud to be alive…” (Sandburg). Here in the poems, he points out the dark reality of families in cities that are most likely in poverty by saying “I have the marks of wanton hunger…”, but then he says “Come and show me another with lifted heading singing so proud to be alive.” He is admiring the city of Chicago saying that when everyone comes together as one, there is no other city stronger than them and has a bigger heart. This shows the progression of Carl Sandburg because in his earlier work he would only focus on how the families would struggle and how their lives would be so bad. Though Carl Sandburg switches to the positivity about these families and how happy and strong they are. “Not only does Sandburg write about city of Chicago as a vibrant relentlessly active, innately immoral place of embodied contradictions,