"The Grass" and "The Soldier"

[pitchgreen]

“The Grass

Comments

[stacilee12]

I agree that the questioning is the focal climax of the poem. Everything leading up to the questions dehumanizes the solidiers and makes them irrelevant to their end cause. So when the questions appears there is a realization of the mentatlity that the author is imposing on the reader as to reflect what he think onlookers assume the war to be. The metaphor of grass is also a strong point. you broke down the point sufficiently enough that i don't have to reiterate, but i really like the way he phrased the last two line. Grass has a purpose, it doesn't have a job. It really makes you contemplate the transition from pastorals as it shows the way the images of pastorals are used to make you feel better, in contrast to teh way this poem uses the images to make you feel.

Oh, the GUILT...

[nareesas]

The opening of the poem reminded me of the saying of "sweeping it under the rug." By burying the bodies of dead soldiers, the problem of facing death in war is literally being swept under a metaphorical rug - the grass. I like your pastoral comparisons. We are made aware of the REAL with the pastoral imagery rather than the IDEAL. The repetition of "pile them high" emphasizes the huge number of deaths that we all eventually put at the back of our heads or, like the speaker says, "shovel them under." "Shovel them under" is also repeated. This poem evokes guilt more than any other emotion. We are caught between trying to honour and remember, and trying to forget the recklessness and horror and loss.

The timeline that's given at the end of the third stanza: "two years, ten years.." is striking. We would hope that the memory of war doesn't vanish in such a short time but it looks like "two years" is all it takes for people to forget or lose consciousness of where they are and what happened there.

The Grass is Greener

[mysteryofgod]

Idealizing war was seen right from the Iliad. In the Iliad war is seen as a place for heroes. In ancient Greece, in the afterlife you got preferential treatment if you died in battle, you were a true hero then. WWI seemed to open people's eyes. I liked your tie to pastorals and war poetry. I guess WWI could be categroized in the often quoted idiom that the grass is always greener on the other side, until you get there. Before the war got under way, warfare seemed to be the greener side to things. However, after and during the war when they got to the other side they could see that it was not so green after all. I think that the poem you used embodies this idea particularly with the symbolism of grass itself.