Carl Sandburg's "Grass" is a short but powerful poem which utilizes the imagery of grass covering the dead of famous battles to represent the passage of time leading to healing or, arguably, forgetting. Speaking in the voice of personified grass, the speaker declares that he will "cover all," a statement which evokes the image of grass slowly springing up out of the dirt mounds of graves as time passes. The idea of something green emerging out of the carnage left behind after battles like Gettysburg, Ypres, and Verdun seems to represent the return of spring to a world harrowed by war: despite the horror of these events, things will still be born, and the grass will be fed on the bodies of those who have been killed. Their death, in a way, contributes to rebirth as symbolized by the green grass covering the graves. Grass, like time, erases the wounds made by war—but there is also an element of warning in the poem, as we hear passengers ask, "What place is this?" Once grass has covered the battlefields, it can certainly indicate that things have begun to heal, but it can also signify that the dead, and the causes of their deaths, have been forgotten.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
James is very unhappy on a number of occasions throughout the story, but he's especially unhappy with his life situation as the story be...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that thrive in diverse environments (such as the ocean, the soil, and the human body). Various bac...
-
One of the plot lines in Pride and Prejudice is Mrs. Bennet’s plan to marry off her daughters, preferably to rich men. Throughout the novel...
-
Note that these events are not in chronological order. The story is told by the narrator, looking back upon her life. The first notable even...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
No comments:
Post a Comment