Poetry Annotations - Amari Walker PDF

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These are poetry annotations over the poem Grass...

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Amari Walker English 11 27 January 2022

Poetry Annotations

Sometimes it is easy for people to overlook or forget about the horrific events that have taken place throughout history because we can no longer see the effects. In Carl Sanburg’s poem “Grass,” readers are prompted to remember just how many lives were lost and changed by the numerous wars that have taken place all over the world. The earnest tone and diction used in the poem helps readers realize the seriousness of war. Sanburg uses repetition, saying “pile the bodies high” throughout the poem as a form of figurative language; this puts into perspective and helps us visualize the amount of blood shed during these wars. He also uses grass to symbolize life moving forward, as the grass grows on the battlefields year after year no one will remember what took place in these places. Sandburg uses these poetic devices to convey a mournful aesthetic impact that leaves readers feeling sorrow and remorse towards something that may have been a just brief thought before. This mournful aesthetic impact encourages the reader to not lose sight of our history, and alerts that the same things - terrible wars - have happened and can keep happening over again.

Grass BY CARL SANDBURG

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work— 1 I am the grass; I cover all. 2 And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. 3 Shovel them under and let me work. 4 Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now?5 I am the grass. Let me work.6 1

In the first two lines, the speaker references the Battle of Austerlitz and the Battle of Waterloo which both happened in the 1800s. The speaker states to pile the bodies of the thousands of men who died during these wars. We are told to put the bodies in the ground and let the speaker do its job to cover it up. 2

In the third line we learn that the grass is the speaker. Since the grass will continue to grow, it will cover up all of the lives that were lost on the battlefields. 3

The grass references three more battlefields, one in which was a part of the American Civil War , and the other two were a part of World War I. The grass repeats “pile them high” to let readers know the severity of lives lost throughout history.

4

This line is also repeated, and we now know that the grass is who is doing the work. The grass tells us to shovel these bodies, just like we were told in the first stanza, so that it can do its job of covering up history.

5 Once years pass from the wars, no one remembers what took place on the battlefields. Passengers on a train ask a conductor what these places are as they pass them. This impacts the reader, letting us know that we have not done a good job of remembering our history. 6

Again, the grass repeats to let it do its job of covering up history over and over again. This line is kind of a warning that history repeats itself, and with the wars to come the grass will continue to grow and we will then forget those too....