Muckers
Muckers - context Summary
Published in 1916
Published in Sandburg's 1916 collection Chicago Poems, "Muckers" draws on his experience of manual labor to portray urban industrial work. The free-verse vignette shows twenty men watching two mucker workers dig for gas mains while opinions split between pity and envy. The poem records everyday labor without ornament, highlighting class dynamics, the physicality of work, and the ambiguous attitudes of observers toward difficult but necessary jobs.
Read Complete AnalysesTwenty men stand watching the mucker's. Stabbing the sides of the ditch Where clay gleams yellow, Driving the blades of their shovels Deeper and deeper for the new gas mains Wiping sweat off their faces With red bandannas The mucker's work on . . pausing . . to pull Their boots out of suckholes where they slosh. Of the twenty looking on Ten murmur, "O, its a hell of a job," Ten others, "Jesus, I wish I had the job."
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