Stormy husky brawling City of the Big Shoulders They tell me you are wicked and I believe them for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys And they tell me you are crooked and I answer Yes it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city and I give them back the sneer and say to them Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness Bareheaded Shoveling Wrecking Planning Building breaking rebuilding Under the smoke dust all over his mouth laughing with white teeth Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse and under his ribs the heart of the people Laughing Laughing the stormy husky brawling laughter of Youth half naked sweating proud to be Hog Butcher Tool