Carl Sandburg

Girl in a Cage

Girl in a Cage - meaning Summary

Money's Cage and Longing

The speaker describes a confining, mechanized work of handling money where dollars continuously flow and are fingered by the worker. The routine alternates between detached, almost playful handling of currency and moments when the money seems to murmur, stirring private longing and images of a woman’s beauty. The poem contrasts material abundance and repetitive labor with sudden, fragile human desire breaking through the machinery of commerce.

Read Complete Analyses

HERE in a cage the dollars come down. To the click of a tube the dollars tumble. And out of a mouth the dollars run. I finger the dollars, Paper and silver, Thousands a day. Some days it's fun to finger the dollars. Some days... the dollars keep on in a sob or a whisper: A flame of rose in the hair, A flame of silk at the throat.

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