Symbolism, Allusion, And Personification In Sandburg's Grass

Taylor Hardacker Dr. M. Clermont-Ferrand English 203-01 9/12/24 How History Repeats Itself: Symbolism, Allusion, and Personification in Sandburg’s Grass Have you ever thought that maybe the biggest reason why history is constantly repeating itself is because of growing grass? All throughout history, people fight in wars and create destruction. It appears no matter how much we try to get along, disagreements always arise, and wars continue to take place. So, the question is, why do humans keep repeating past mistakes? War is something we read about in books at school. Something we watch on television and study for tests on. We grieve those who fought for a time by visiting memorials or giving veterans national holidays to thank them for their

Grass growing symbolizes forgetting and repeating because it grows, covering gravestones of people that have fought in wars. Over time, graveyards get fuller, and the grass continues to grow thicker and longer, which causes more people to forget about them and what the fought for. The grass mentions old battle grounds where gruesome wars take place saying, “Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo” (Sandburg 1). In both battles, many fighters lost their lives and made the grass their final resting place. The bodies “piling” signifies the abundance of soldiers that repeatedly passed away on the battlefields. Graveyards continue to grow with the bodies and the soldiers getting all mixed together, causing people to forget about them. The grass says, “I am the grass; I cover all” (Sandburg 2-3). If the grass never “cover’s all” then people will still be able to see the debris of the wars and they will constantly remember how this happened, preventing them from making future mistakes. The grass also uses allusion to reference the wars that have previously

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