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.