Nigger
Nigger - context Summary
Published in Chicago Poems
Written for Sandburg's 1916 collection Chicago Poems, the poem foregrounds a blunt, first‑person voice that names and claims a racial identity long marginalized in American life. It juxtaposes images of music, labor, joy and ancestral memory to present a complex, embodied portrait shaped by slavery and ongoing exploitation. The poem reflects Sandburg's journalistic concern for social realities and his attempt to give voice to marginalized Americans.
Read Complete AnalysesI am the nigger. Singer of songs, Dancer. . . Softer than fluff of cotton. . . Harder than dark earth Roads beaten in the sun By the bare feet of slaves. . . Foam of teeth. . . breaking crash of laughter. . . Red love of the blood of woman, White love of the tumbling pickaninnies. . . Lazy love of the banjo thrum. . . Sweated and driven for the harvest-wage, Loud laughter with hands like hams, Fists toughened on the handles, Smiling the slumber dreams of old jungles, Crazy as the sun and dew and dripping, heaving life of the jungle, Brooding and muttering with memories of shackles: I am the nigger. Look at me. I am the nigger.
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