Old Woman
Old Woman - context Summary
Published in Chicago Poems
Published in 1916 in Chicago Poems, Sandburg’s "Old Woman" presents a brief urban vignette of indifference and neglect. The poem observes a rain-soaked street from a passing car as a harsh headlight reveals a single homeless, disheveled elderly woman huddled in a doorway. It compresses city life into a moment that highlights social marginalization and the anonymous suffering of the urban poor, a recurring focus in Sandburg’s early work.
Read Complete AnalysesThe owl-car clatters along, dogged by the echo From building and battered paving-stone. The headlight scoffs at the mist, And fixes its yellow rays in the cold slow rain; Against a pane I press my forehead And drowsily look on the walls and sidewalks. The headlight finds the way And life is gone from the wet and the welter-- Only an old woman, bloated, disheveled and bleared. Far-wandered waif of other days, Huddles for sleep in a doorway, Homeless.
It's a description of the poet looking sleepily out the window of a rainy late-night cable-car through a city seemingly deserted; except for the glimpse of a homeless old woman asleep in a doorway. She is ugly, but he briefly reflects that this vagrant once was young and appealing. It's a bleak mood poem.