"Halsted Street Car"
Below is the poem, with analysis at the bottom.

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        Come you, cartoonists,
        Hang on a strap with me here
        At seven o'clock in the morning
        On a Halsted streetcar

                  Take your pencils
                  And draw these faces.

Try with your pencils for these crooked faces,
That pig-sticker in one corner--his mouth--
Tat overall factory girl--her loose cheeks.

                  Find for your pencils
                  A way to mark your memory
                  Of tired and empty faces.

                 After their night's sleep,
                 In the moist dawn
                 And cool daybreak,
                     Faces
                 Tired of wishes
                 Empty of dreams.

A Student's Analysis

The recurring idea in this is the reference to cartoonists and drawing.  It shows us that people far too often focus on the upper class and not enough on the working class and poor.  The "cartoonists" in this play can either be cartoonists in newspapers, who often focus too much on politics and the wealthy.  Or the "cartoonists" could refer to us, the readers.  It's Sandburg's way of saying "if you want to really see life, look at these people."

Again, Sandburg presents us with a beautiful poem that focuses on the people that make up the city.  The poem is set in a street car on the way to work, where Sandburg describes the people as "Tired of wishes, empty of dreams" (lines 21-22).  This says a lot about the people who work so hard that they've ceased to have big dreams about their lives.

Chicago was a hard city back then.  The people were tired--of working and of dreaming.  But Sandburg is telling us that these people are where the real stories lie.

This website is a student project created for the University of Michigan's English 280 class.  Created by Chris Stallman