Omaha
Omaha - context Summary
Published in Cornhuskers, 1918
Published in the 1918 collection Cornhuskers, Sandburg’s "Omaha" sketches the city as a working-class food producer. The poem contrasts rural imagery—red barns, heifers, cream—with industrial elements like a steel span and shanties, situating Omaha on the Missouri River. Sandburg presents the city as a blunt, rough character that "feeds armies," emphasizing labor, grit, and the practical, unglamorous role of urban and agricultural labor in sustaining the nation.
Read Complete AnalysesRed barns and red heifers spot the green grass circles around Omaha--the farmers haul tanks of cream and wagon-loads of cheese. Shale hogbacks across the river at Council Bluffs--and shanties hang by an eyelash to the hill slants back around Omaha. A span of steel ties up the kin of Iowa and Nebraska across the yellow, big-hoofed Missouri River. Omaha, the roughneck, feeds armies, Eats and swears from a dirty face. Omaha works to get the world a breakfast.
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