Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THEY WILL SAY by CARL SANDBURG

Poet Analysis

First Line: OF MY CITY THE WORST THAT MEN WILL EVER SAY IS THIS
Last Line: FOR A LITTLE HANDFUL OF PAY ON A FEW SATURDAY NIGHTS.
Of my city the worst that men will ever say is this:
You took little children away from the sun and the dew,
And the glimmers that played in the grass under the great sky,
And the reckless rain; you put them between walls
To work, broken and smothered, for bread and wages,
To eat dust in their throats and die empty-hearted
For a little handful of pay on a few Saturday nights.


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