People Who Must
People Who Must - context Summary
Published in Chicago Poems
Published in Carl Sandburg's 1916 collection Chicago Poems, this short piece places a laboring narrator on a skyscraper roof observing the city below. The speaker frames his day as work while watching crowds and a lone traffic cop move like organisms in an urban machine. The repetition that closes the poem reinforces a steady, unromanticized view of daily labor and the anonymous masses that define modern city life.
Read Complete AnalysesI painted on the roof of a skyscraper. I painted a long while and called it a day's work. The people on the corner swarmed and the traffic cop's whistle never let up all afternoon. They were the same as bugs, many bugs on their way-- These people on the go or at a standstill; And the traffic cop a spot of blue, a splinter of brass, Where the black tids ran around him And he kept the street. I painted a long while And called it a day's work.
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