Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PICNIC BOAT by CARL SANDBURG

Poet Analysis

First Line: SUNDAY NIGHT AND THE PARK POLICEMEN TELL EACH OTHER IT IS DARK AS A STACK ...
Last Line: FOR THE HOME-COMERS.
Subject(s): BOATS; CHICAGO;

Sunday night and the park policemen tell each other it is dark as a
stack of black cats on Lake Michigan.
A big picnic boat comes home to Chicago from the peach farms of
Saugatuck.
Hundreds of electric bulbs break the night's darkness, a flock of red
and yellow birds with wings at a standstill.
Running along the deck railings are festoons and leaping in curves
are loops of light from prow and stern to the tall smokestacks.
Over the hoarse crunch of waves at my pier comes a hoarse answer
in the rythmic oompa of the brasses playing a Polish folksong
for the home-comers.



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