| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916. |
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| 41. Jack |
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| JACK was a swarthy, swaggering son-of-a-gun. | |
| He worked thirty years on the railroad, ten hours a day, and his hands were tougher than sole leather. | |
| He married a tough woman and they had eight children and the woman died and the children grew up and went away and wrote the old man every two years. | |
| He died in the poorhouse sitting on a bench in the sun telling reminiscences to other old men whose women were dead and children scattered. | |
| There was joy on his face when he died as there was joy on his face when he lived—he was a swarthy, swaggering son-of-a-gun. | 5 |
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