Omaha
Red 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.
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.
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