Poem Explication

Introduction

This poem is based on an unusual perspective on the war, while the human perceptive is placed to one side. The poem is unusually structured and is an example of free verse which turns down the rules of meter and rhyme for a more conversational voice.

The poem selected to be analyzed in this essay is one of the exceptional masterpieces composed by Carl Sandburg. Carl Sandburg is one of the famous poets and tremendous writers well-known for his diversified themes and styles of composition. Carl Sandburg has presented several compositions and poems that grasped widespread fame and captivation within short time span. The poem that is selected to explicate in this essay is “Grass” by Carl Sandburg.

The meaning of the words adapted by the author to present his point of view and compositions illustrated through diverse themes adapted has exceptional depth. However, the compositions are formulated in a manner to make poem understandable to a common man in order to convey the message asserted by the author in his compositions. The title of the poem composed by Carl Sandburg is concise, concrete and explains the themes incorporated in the compositions. The title of the poem provides an idea through which it can be illustrated that the metaphors explained by author in the poem accompany keynote and plain-speaking characteristics represented by the compositions used by author (Shuman, 116).

The first word of the poem is prescribed in upper-script. This represents the approach through which the authors usually grasp readers' attention. The initiating of the poem is acknowledged with the word 'PILE' which represents substantial degree of abandonment of the statements exemplified afterwards (Wilson, 78). The utterance representing the words 'Austerlitz' and 'Waterloo' accompanies the experience and notion of death experienced in the incidents of battles prescribed in the poems. The amalgamation of words illustrated in the poem represent virtues or demerits the war scenarios prescribed in the poem.

Discussion and Analysis

The analysis of the word 'pile' reveals that the word can be considered as verb not noun as per the order of the word in which the script is formulated. The words comprising the second part of the poem question the entity or individual responsible for spading the ground for bodies. This represents extreme revulsion for the incidents witnessed after battles. In this part of the poem, the author perceives 'grass' as the narrator as it is aforementioned. The words used in this part of the poem represent workaholic and responsible behavior of the narrator 'grass' that refrain the readers from particular activities (battle and war) as it disrupts the work of narrator (Phillips, 519). There are diverse themes and metaphors adapted in Carl Sandburg's Grass. These themes and metaphors evoke famous conflicts that significantly influenced the past and have substantial influence on the present. The author in his poem enlightens several incidents such as the battle of Austerlitz that was Napoleon's great victory. Nonetheless, Waterloo was prescribed as the final defeat acknowledged by Napoleon. In addition, the poet asserts ...