Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ONION DAYS, by CARL SANDBURG



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ONION DAYS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Mrs. Gabrielle giovannitti comes along peoria street
Last Line: Morning.


Mrs. Gabrielle Giovannitti comes along Peoria Street every morning
at nine o'clock
With kindling wood piled on top of her head, her eyes looking
straight ahead to find the way for her old feet.
Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Pietro Giovannitti, whose husband was
killed in a tunnel explosion through the negligence of a
fellow-servant,
Works ten hours a day, sometimes twelve, picking onions for Jasper
on the Bowmanville road.
She takes a street car at half-past five in the morning, Mrs. Pietro
Giovannitti does,
And gets back from Jasper's with cash for her day's work, between
nine and ten o'clock at night.
Last week she got eight cents a box, Mrs. Pietro Giovannitti,
picking onions for Jasper,
But this week Jasper dropped the pay to six cents a box because so
many women and girls were answering the ads in the Daily
News.
Jasper belongs to an Episcopal church in Ravenswood and on
certain Sundays
He enjoys chanting the Nicene creed with his daughters on each
side of him joining their voices with his.
If the preacher repeats old sermons of a Sunday, Jasper's mind
wanders to his 700-acre farm and how he can make it produce
more efficiently
And sometimes he speculates on whether he could word an ad in
the Daily News so it would bring more women and girls out to
his farm and reduce operating costs.
Mrs. Pietro Giovannitti is far from desperate about life; her joy is
in a child she knows will arrive to her in three months.
And now while these are the pictures for today there are other
pictures of the Giovannitti people I could give you for
to-morrow,
And how some of them go to the county agent on winter mornings
with their baskets for beans and cornmeal and molasses.
I listen to fellows saying here's good stuff for a novel or it might
be worked up into a good play.
I say there's no dramatist living can put old Mrs. Gabrielle
Giovannitti into a play with that kindling wood piled on top
of her head coming along Peoria Street nine o'clock in the
morning.




Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net