The Harbor by Carl Sandburg

I really enjoyed this shorter work by Sandburg.

Passing through huddled and ugly walls
By doorways where women
Looked from their hunger-deep eyes,
Haunted with shadows of hunger-hands,
Out from the huddled and ugly walls,
I came sudden, at the city's edge,
On a blue burst of lake,
Long lake waves breaking under the sun
On a spray-flung curve of shore;
And a fluttering storm of gulls,
Masses of great gray wings
And flying white bellies
Veering and wheeling free in the open

I can get such a clear grasp of Chicago through his use of imagery. Words like "huddled, shadows, and haunted" present a stark representatn of the city in early 20th century Chicago. Everything feels muted, grey, and claustrophobic at times. In lines 7 we get the first use of color in "a blue burst of lake". From here, the work feels spacious, expressive, and less constrained. The "flying white bellies / Veering and wheeling free in the open" are almost coaxing him out further, as if to represent a separation from the natural inherent in urban life.

Personally, this made me appreciate the "wide open spaces" of west Texas a little more today. :-)