Limited
Limited - context Summary
Published in 1916 Chicago Poems
"Limited" was published in Carl Sandburg's 1916 collection Chicago Poems. It uses the image of a fast, steel train to register modern American industry, mobility, and crowded urban life. The poem juxtaposes mass movement and mechanization with a brief human detail—a passenger replying "Omaha"—while acknowledging human transience. As an early Sandburg piece, it reflects his interest in everyday speech and in portraying the nation’s speed, scale, and impermanence.
Read Complete AnalysesI am riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains of the nation. Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people. (All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall pass to ashes.) I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he answers: "Omaha."
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