In his poem "Grass", Carl Sandburg emphasizes the need to remember
             the people who have died in war for the cause of freedom and chastises
             those who go about their daily lives taking their freedom for granted. The
             straightforward statements in the poem portray the author's disappointment
             of those who would forget, and Sandburg implores the reader to remember
             those lives lost in conflict. Sandburg uses personification and gives the
             grass human qualities to convey the reader that grass acts as a cover up of
             all the deaths, destruction and other historical memories. The poem
             illustrates how war is a destructive force through its strong imagery,
             repetition and personification of the grass.
             Sandburg starts the poem off with "Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz
             and Waterloo" (Sandburg). The word "pile" grabs the reader's attention and
             gives the reader a strong image of dead corpses piled on top of each other.
             Also, the words "Austerlitz" and "Waterloo" show us that this destructive
             force of war effects places all over the world. The random grouping of
             these battles suggests that the destruction can be from any battle, any
             place, and any time. As the poem continues he builds on this idea even
             further, "And pile them high at Ypres/ And pile them high at Verdun"
             (Sandburg). We can see the destruction was done by an unnatural form
             because of the collection of dead bodies. The reader can now see that the
             word "pile" is a verb, not a noun, and an order at that. At the end of the
             poem he writes, "I am the grass/ Let me work" (Sandburg). This shows us
             that the horrific deeds of war all seem eradicated by nature's gentle work.
             Grass covers all, in time, but the destruction and devastation of war
             should never be forgotten by those who were affected.
             Although the destruction and devastation shown through this poem
             should be enough to set the mood for the readers, Sandburg uses free verse
             to mimic or...