Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Grade 8: Poetry Practice (Due before class Friday, February 11th)
Read the following poem. In a properly written, complete paragraph, present an explanation of the poem's meaning. In your explanation, be sure to consider who the speaker is, what is going on, and what is unusual. Pay careful attention to any sound elements, any important repetition, and any metaphors or personification.
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Grass
ReplyDeleteBy Carl Sandburg
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
Here is some background information to help you out!
ReplyDeleteAusterlitz: Major battle of the Napoleonic wars, fought on December 2, 1805. Nearly 25,000 men died. Napoleon Bonaparte and his army of nearly 70,000 soldiers defeated a force of Russians and Austrians numbering about 90,000. Austerlitz is in the present-day Czech Republic.
Waterloo: The final battle of the Napoleonic wars, fought near Waterloo, Belgium, on June 18, 1815, and resulting in more than 60,000 casualties. British forces under the Duke of Wellington, General Arthur Wellesley, and Prussian forces under Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher combined to defeat Napoleon.
Gettysburg: Major battle of the U.S. Civil War in which Union forces of General George G. Meade defeated Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee near the small town of
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1-3, 1863, resulting in 45,000 to 50,000 casualties. The battle turned the tide of the war in favor of the Union.
Ypres (pronounced E pruh): Town in Belgium that was the site of three major World War I battles (October-November 1914, April-May 1915, and July-November 1917) that resulted in more than 850,000 German and allied casualties.
Verdun: Indecisive World War I battle between the French and the Germans fought at Verdun, France, from February to December, 1916. Total casualties numbered more than 700,000.
"I am the grass; I cover all" We can see how this verse clearily tells us that its the grass talking there so the poem is in first person and is a poem full of personification. We can see how various places were famous wars or empires have ended. This poem is triyng to tell us the perspective of grass on things how happenings happen important or less important but she is always there and she sees various things. How she sees people die how she covers history and bodys.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of the proem is that if you hide things eventually you won’t be able to recognize what happened. For example in the poem it says "Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work." this means that you can hide even the greatest of disasters like a great war in history. But then in the poem says that "Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this?" this means that the place their asking about could be one of the places of one of the wars and they don’t even know after several years. That is why the meaning of the poem is that over time eventually you can’t recognize what happened in one place.
Bye
Good thoughts, Christian and Alessandro! I like how you both noted very interesting elements to the poem. Christian, you noted the poem's theme that if you hide something you eventually might forget that it even happened. Alessandro, you noticed the importance of personification in the poem.
ReplyDeleteChristian, you are starting to structure your paragraphs in a much better way! You have a clear opening sentence that shows you thesis or argument. You then have text details which you explain. Finally, you end with a closing sentence. Good work!
Next time, work on the strength of your closing sentences. You wrote, "That is why the meaning of the poem is that over time eventually you can’t recognize what happened in one place." This is not a strong closing. Instead of telling us what you are writing about, just write it! Confusing? Look at how I might fix that sentence up: The grass has covered up the damage of war to the point that the location is unrecognizable to people, proving that if you hide something that has happened, it is eventually forgotten. In the case of war, this could be detrimental.
Hello Ms Gelso and fellow classmates
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Grass” by Carl Sandburg, the main theme is the seriousness of an event that is forgotten. The speaker is in 1st person, revealing strong emotions and probably protesting for forgetting something that is so important. When he says “I am the grass; I cover all”, he may means that everybody after many years (including him) steps on the place where historical people sacrificed themselves and just ignores it. And if there is someone who will ask after ten years “What place is this? Where are we now?” this simple reference will make no difference. Something unusual about this poem is that the poet says “Let me work”. This sentence can have many meanings. One of them can be “Let me occupy myself in order not to think of what we’re doing” in the sense of forgetting what happened.
I think that the poem before us is about a man who is in a war of some sort. We can all see it was done in first person. It is manly about a person who takes the bodies of lost men to put under him under his rule and protection; I think this because in the poem it says....... Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work— I am the grass; I cover all. This could mean so many things for one it could mean that the man is a person who cares about people who had passed away because the things he talks about are wars and wars. If you read what MS. Gelso posted after the poem you can see so many clues to the fact that it was a war like she gave us some examples like Austerlitz: Major battle of the Napoleonic wars, fought on December 2, 1805. Nearly 25,000 men died. Napoleon Bonaparte and his army of nearly 70,000 soldiers defeated a force of Russians and Austrians numbering about 90,000. Austerlitz is in the present-day Czech Republic. Waterloo: The final battle of the Napoleonic wars, fought near Waterloo, Belgium, on June 18, 1815, and resulting in more than 60,000 casualties. British forces under the Duke of Wellington, General Arthur Wellesley, and Prussian forces under Field Marshal Gerhard Leberecht von Blücher combined to defeat Napoleon. Gettysburg: Major battle of the U.S. Civil War in which Union forces of General George G. Meade defeated Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee near the small town of This were all war mentioned in this poem and agree that the man is a man who cares about past souls of many far behind
ReplyDeleteFor me the meaning of the poem is that if you hide things you wouldn't know what is happening and where it is. it also sais that means that you can hide everything, also the greatest thing and disaster. It also means There is framing and also personification and metaphor because the person can't be grass. That is why the meaning of the poem is that over a lot of time you have a problem to recognize what happened in one place.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is written in 3rd person, what is basically going on is that this person wants to forget the bad memories of wars, because he want to start living a normal life he wants to start again. What is unusual is that he wants to cover his memories but he is telling someone else to do the job for him. There is a very important personification that is "Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
ReplyDeleteShovel them under and let me work—" this sentence is personification since you cant burry memories.