Crapshooters
Crapshooters - meaning Summary
Chance as Divine Order
Sandburg uses a gambling metaphor to argue that chance governs human fate. The poem frames winning and losing as reciprocal and ancient knowledge, attributed to the Chaldeans. Heaven is imagined as an endless craps game where divine fortune determines outcomes; humans are likened to dice rolled by a "High Thrower." The closing lines emphasize persistent hope and the names attached to mythic wagers and risks.
Read Complete AnalysesSOMEBODY loses whenever somebody wins. This was known to the Chaldeans long ago. And more: somebody wins whenever somebody loses. This too was in the savvy of the Chaldeans. They take it heaven's hereafter is an eternity of crap games where they try their wrists years and years and no police come with a wagon; the game goes on forever. The spots on the dice are the music signs of the songs of heaven here. God is Luck: Luck is God: we are all bones the High Thrower rolled: some are two spots, some double sixes. The myths are Phoebe, Little Joe, Big Dick. Hope runs high with a: Huh, seven-huh, come seven This too was in the savvy of the Chaldeans.
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