Literary Criticism

Literary Critisisms

1. Mythological/ Archetypal Approach to the Chicago Poems as a whole

As we have talked about, it's nearly impossible to consider one poem out of the Chicago Poems by itself due to the way Carl Sandburg structured the collection. The collection is divided into four distinct parts. The poems are not actually seperated; however, they differ in terms of perspective, angle and distance from which the subjects are presented. The first part, in which "The Harbor" appears, presents a wide-angle, very general view of the city as a whole. This sets the stage for the rest of the collection, acting as a backdrop. "The Harbor" fits into this generalization very well, as it is a detatched, journalistic description of a setting. The second part of the collection narrows the scope of the city. Working class street life in general is depicted extensively in this section. Individual workers' lives are portrayed in the third part, with poems such as "Onion Days," about an Italian woman who sells Onions for a living. The last section of the collection most accurately fits the mythological/ archetypal anaysis, as Sandburg presents images of American heroes and anti-heroes in poems such as "Ice Handler" and "To a Contemporary Bunkshooter" addressed to Billy Sunday.

The first poem in the Chicago Poems collection simultaneously introduces the city of Chicago as a whole in wide, sweeping terms and introduces the city as the American hero, the main character whose story Sandburg narrates through the lives of the people of the city. The text of Chicago is below.

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.

Here, Chicago is personified as a collective hero, the working man, and the voice of the people. The city is an imperfect cultural hero (hence the list of shortcomings), but a truly American one. Through the rest of the Chicago Poems, Sandburg traces him through the archetypal "hero's journey," listing, through poetry, the obstacles that he faces in the form of poverty, hopelessness, and corruption.

In addition to the hero's journey structure of the collection, Sandburg uses symbolism in the form of images in "The Harbor." For example, water often represents purification and redemptions and fertility and growth. In "The Harbor," these aspects of nature are implied in the juxtaposition of the stiffling city with the free, life-giving harbor.

Creative energy, law in nature, consciousness, and enlightenment are represented by the sun in traditional mythological symbolism. In "The Harbor," the sun is used in conjunction with imagery that again gives the impression of freedom, both literally and spiritually, in nature.

The color blue, used extensively in "The Harbor", as in "blue burst", is usually highly positive and associated with truth, religious feeling, security, and spiritual purity. Sandburg uses these connotations of the color blue very effectively in his poem to contrast the corruption of the city with the purity of nature.

Walls, shadows, and haunted in the first part of the poem contribute to the impression of the city as dark, and smudged. Black and darkness in traditional symbolism are associated with evil, the unknown, and melancholy- certainly the feeling one gets from Sandburg's description of the city.

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2. Historical/ Biographical Approach

Since Carl Sandburg was born to a working class family, he had intimate knowledge of the hardships of the ordinary man's life and probably formed a great deal of his sympathy for the common man because of his childhood and early working life. Sandburg's father, a Swedish immigrant, worked as a blacksmith for the railroad, ten hours a day, six days a week. During a time when unions were being organized and strikes, especially around Chicago were commonplace, August Sandburg continued to work, never giving a thought to joining the socialist party. His father's character contributed to his idea of the people as enduring and patient, truly the salt of the Earth. Sandburg's variety of odd jobs (delivering milk, cutting ice on the lake, assisting carpenters, painters, plumbers, barbers, druggists) also contributed to the intimate knowledge he had of the workplace. In addition, through these jobs, he was exposed to a great deal of the colloquial dialects that he later used in his poetry to acheive verisimilitude. Sandburg's experiences traveling as a hobo to the wheat fields on Kansas gave him a unique perspective of life at the very bottom of the social ladder. In addition, his journeys in America and as a soldier permitted him to see much of the land of America. The connection he forged with the laborer was occasionally detrimental to the literary quality of his work. His experiences had made him a humanitarian to an extent that biased his documentation, causing him to distort the socio-economic gap between the powerful and the suffering poor. Sandburg's professor in college, Phillip Green Wright, had some influence on Sandburg's socialist leaning (in both writing and politics,) although he was not a socialist himself. Carl Sandburg's brief stint with the socialist party was a major influence on his work. In accordance with the socialist principles, Sandburg believed that the democratic ideal was being subverted by a wealthy group that derived their power from the exploitation of the working class. Because of this idea, Sandburg asserts his responsibility to America by writing "socially engaged" poetry based on narration from a witness's point of view. His poetry is deeply rooted in the political because his experiences, and therefore his authentic poetry, were that of the poor, the powerless, and the victimized.