4. Pennsylvania. I. Smoke Nights. Sandburg, Carl. 1920. Smoke and Steel

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.

I. Smoke Nights

4. Pennsylvania

I HAVE been in Pennsylvania,
In the Monongahela and the Hocking Valleys.

In the blue Susquehanna
On a Saturday morning
I saw the mounted constabulary go by,	5
I saw boys playing marbles.
Spring and the hills laughed.

And in places
Along the Appalachian chain,
I saw steel arms handling coal and iron,	10
And I saw the white-cauliflower faces
Of miners’ wives waiting for the men to come home from the day’s work.

I made color studies in crimson and violet
Over the dust and domes of culm at sunset.