Chicago
Carl Sandburg’s 1914 free-verse portrait of his adopted city hears every accusation against Chicago, grants them, and answers with fierce pride in its labor and rough, unbeatable vitality.
Theme
labor
4 poems
labor
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967), the Pulitzer-winning poet of working-class America, made free verse a hymn to ordinary people — from “Chicago” to his monumental life of Lincoln.
Blueberries
Neighbors trade lively talk over a bumper crop in “Blueberries,” where burn, botany, and community meet.
After Apple-Picking
Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking” watches a weary farmer drift from the day’s harvest toward sleep, apples swimming behind his eyes — one of his great meditations on labor, satiety, and the sleep that may be death.