Under the Smoke

Of my city the worst that men will ever say is this:
You took little children away from the sun and the dew,
And the glimmers that played in the grass under the great sky,
And the reckless rain; you put them between walls
To work, broken and smothered, for bread and wages,
To eat dust in their throats and die empty-hearted
For a little handful of pay on a few Saturday nights.

THEY WILL SAY
Carl Sandburg (1916)

Under The Smoke

The Poetry of Carl Sandburg

This website is a tribute page to the poet Carl Sandburg, focusing on his work in the 1916 work Chicago Poems. The website features a small selection of his poems, along with a biography of Sandburg and a short history of Chicago. To read the entirety of Chicago Poems, visit the Wikisource page of Sandburg. For any comments, suggestions, or technical issues please use the About & Contact contact form.