Hear prominent Chicagoans read Carl Sandburg’s iconic 1914 poem ‘Chicago’

The Carl Sandburg poem “Chicago” has been a beloved local anthem for more than a century.

The 1914 poem, which coined the phrase “City of Big Shoulders,” has inspired prideful political speeches, launched a comic series and even decorated buildings. The work has been analyzed in classrooms and has surely served as a rousing nightcap at many an Uptown poetry slam.

But the poem recently gained fresh relevance when a judge read it aloud in a court ruling addressing use of force by federal immigration agents.

As the year begins anew, with a rush of civic pride going into this weekend’s Bears playoffs, WBEZ’s arts desk asked some well-known Chicagoans to recite it. We caught on tape broadcaster Bill Kurtis, Mayor Brandon Johnson, emcee Sir Michael Rocks of the Cool Kids, “The House on Mango Street” author Sandra Cisneros, Congressman Danny Davis, Bears tight end Colston Loveland and WBEZ host Mary Dixon.

Click on the red audio player above to hear the poem, which was produced and mixed by Justin Bull. Contributors include Somer Van Benton, Nudia Hernandez and Cheryl Raye-Stout.

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.

Source: Poetry magazine, March 1914