| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916. |
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| 39. Dynamiter |
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| I SAT with a dynamiter at supper in a German saloon eating steak and onions. | |
| And he laughed and told stories of his wife and children and the cause of labor and the working class. | |
| It was laughter of an unshakable man knowing life to be a rich and red-blooded thing. | |
| Yes, his laugh rang like the call of gray birds filled with a glory of joy ramming their winged flight through a rain storm. | |
| His name was in many newspapers as an enemy of the nation and few keepers of churches or schools would open their doors to him. | 5 |
| Over the steak and onions not a word was said of his deep days and nights as a dynamiter. | |
| Only I always remember him as a lover of life, a lover of children, a lover of all free, reckless laughter everywhere—lover of red hearts and red blood the world over. | |
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