Clambered over with jackies in white blouses.?

Question

by Carl Sandburg (1916)




Guns,
Long, steel guns,
Pointed from the war ships
In the name of the war god.
Straight, shining, polished guns,
Clambered over with jackies in white blouses,
Glory of tan faces, tousled hair, white teeth,
Laughing lithe jackies in white blouses,
Sitting on the guns singing war songs, war chanties.

Shovels,
Broad, iron shovels,
Scooping out oblong vaults,
Loosening turf and leveling sod.

I ask you
To witness-
The shovel is brother to the gun

Answer 1

"jackies" are "sailors", or "salts 'o the land". A sailor doesn't wear a "shirt", he wears a "blouse", and since they work outside on deck or in the rigging, are known for having tans and being lithe, young, and the salt water and bright sunshine (plus the dark tans) make their teeth appear even whiter. The wind keeps their hair tousled and back in the day they were living large upon the seven seas, singing songs to pass the time as they worked on deck. Meanwhile, the shovels, broad iron shovels, scooped out oblong walls in two places...one down below in the engine rooms between mounds of coal, and the other in "turf and leveling sod" of the graveyard...a stark contrast to the smiling, vivacious youth pictured in the stanza above...hence the final turn that paralells the shovel and the gun.

A "shovel" is "brother to a gun" because they are both made of iron. In time of war, plowshares are hammered into guns, and in times of peace, guns are hammered into plowshares...hence they are brothers...and when you involve yourself with the gun, there is usually a shovel going to be involved at some point down the road.

Answer 2

Clambered Meaning