Death Snips Proud Men
Death Snips Proud Men - meaning Summary
Inevitability Made Plain
Sandburg’s poem presents death as an absolute, everyday force that outlasts governments and humbles proud men. Using plain, colloquial voice and repeated personifications—mocking gambler, obliging intruder, soothing nurse—it treats death as inevitable, impersonal, and oddly domestic. The poem emphasizes equality in mortality and a wry acceptance of finality rather than terror. Its tone is blunt, sardonic, and matter-of-fact within the Smoke and Steel collection.
Read Complete AnalysesDeath is stronger than all the governments because the governments are men and men die and then death laughs: Now you see 'em, now you don't. Death is stronger than all proud men and so death snips proud men on the nose, throws a pair of dice and says: Read 'em and weep. Death sends a radiogram every day: When I want you I'll drop in--and then one day he comes with a master-key and lets himself in and says: We'll go now. Death is a nurse mother with big arms: 'Twon't hurt you at all; it's your time now; just need a long sleep, child; what have you had anyhow better than sleep?
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