At a Window
BY CARL SANDBURG

Give me hunger,
O you gods that sit and give
The world its orders.
Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!

But leave me a little love,
A voice to speak to me in the day end,
A hand to touch me in the dark room
Breaking the long loneliness.
In the dusk of day-shapes
Blurring the sunset,
One little wandering, western star
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow.
Let me go to the window,
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk
And wait and know the coming
Of a little love.

Sandburg in the poem describes the importance of love in his life. Love is so important to him that he might give up all pleasures in life for love, he uses metaphors to prove the same.

The theme of this poem is romantic and touches on the importance of having someone who loves you. Although it is symbolic in how it is written, it is very straightforward in its message. A lack of rhyming is present which is evident in most poems written by Sandburg.

This poem is serious in tone and deals with the love and belonging stage of the structure of needs in which a person will never feel complete until they have friends close to them.