The Unbiased In The Poem Grass By Carl Sandberg

Grass is incapable of speech. Or any intelligent thoughts for that matter. But if grass was sentient, what would it think of human race. Would it be impressed by our progress, or disappointed at all the obstacles we have yet to overcome? Carl Sandberg seems to believe the latter, as he writes of an impassive being posing as grass. He captures the unbiased perspective of nature and illustrates how pointless human warfare is to a being above such trivial matters. Sandburg, in his poem Grass, intertwines proper nouns, pronouns, and imperative verbs to illustrate how superficial human conflicts are from the perspective of nature. In “Grass,” the speaker uses proper nouns to put the poem in perspective. Five proper nouns are used throughout this piece, all the titles of major battles. The speaker mentions these conflicts so casually that it’s easy to miss the significance of these remarks, but these battles were all very bloody and very crucial to history. The earliest battle, “Austerlitz” (Line 1,), took place about 100 years earlier than the more recent battle at “Verdun” (Line 5.) Only an incredibly small minority of humans live to see their 80th birthday, let alone their 100th, yet the speaker mentions such gaps casually. Almost like it was discussing what it did last week. “Verdun” (Line 5) was the site of almost 750,000 deaths over 9 month of fighting, yet the speaker only mentions it in passing. It was a crucial battle in determining the outcome of WWI, which greatly influenced our modern world, but the grass sees it only as a site for expanding its terrain. Through the pronouns the grass choses to talk about itself, we see that the speaker’s primary concern is its own health. As previously established, this poem’s setting is the location of five major battles. Humans typically focus on death and destruction more than how much grass has grown, but in this poem the opposite is true. Since it can observe and comment on its surroundings, the speaker should be able …show more content…
This vegetation doesn’t care that these soldiers had lives, friends, and families waiting for them back home. It doesn’t care how much these soldiers loved their country, or just felt like it was their patriotic duty to fight thee wars. The speaker sees these matters as trivial, and looks down at humans for caring for such concepts. This is shown the speakers use of the word “shovel” (Line 6.) The grass is in no position to demand this of mankind, yet it does so anyway. Furthermore, the speakers use of the word “pile” (line 4) similarly connotes a sense of command. No one goes around piling up bodies for fun, which means that someone is ordering these men to do this. Odds are, the grass isn’t in charge of these men. But that doesn’t stop the speaker from attempting to command these men. The only people who go around commanding strangers to work are either in a position of great power or falsely believe they have great power. This speaker is definitely the latter.
Carl Sandburg, in his poem Grass, uses proper nouns, pronouns, and imperative verbs to illustrate how pointless human conflicts are from the perspective of nature. He, under the guise of vegetation, questions the purpose of war and mocks the aftermath. If even grass, inanimate and thoughtless beings, sees how fruitless battles really are then how can we call ourselves