“I have been watching the war map slammed for advertising in front of the/ newspaper office./” (1-2) proposes the dichotomous poem of colorful buttons shifting frequently on a war map. The poem “Buttons” by Carl Sandburg in 1905 contrasts society’s perception of the war. “Buttons” portrays various poetic elements to reinforce the speaker’s central idea towards the disconnection of people who consider the war comical versus the true reality by the war map. To begin with, the first stanza of the poem introduces the war map’s purpose. The war map degrades death as it is a visual representation of the war. The war map includes “Buttons-red and yellow buttons- blue and black buttons...” (3) and is a progress tracker of the gruesome attacks happening
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The second stanza continues the poem with “A laughing young man, sunny with freckles,/” (5). The speaker is expressing the general public’s lack of knowledge to the severity of the war. The laughing young man “Climbs a ladder, yells a joke to somebody in the crowd,/” (6) is portraying the situational irony as the speaker describes a cheerful moment, which is the later the complete opposite. The speaker displays a lightheartedly man who is updating the war map with the brutal reality. When the poem reads, “And then fixes a yellow button one inch west/ And follows the yellow button with a black button one inch west./” (7-8) indicates the movement of the war. The young man pushes two opposing buttons towards the west which represents the outcome of the battle. The second stanza displays the innocent blind dangers of war and how the civilians are reacting. The position of the buttons is senseless to people who are creating jokes and laughter when in reality, the buttons are displaying the losses of war …show more content…
The speaker presents “twist on their bodies”, which is implying the injuries on the soldier’s bodies along with “red soak”, which refers to the soldier’s blood. The “river edge” provokes the reader to imagine a pleasant setting, moreover, the outright opposite of war. The idea of a thousand bloody men, struggling up a riverside reveals the cruelity of the war. The buttons are shifting and the war impact is destructive. Numerous war troops are struggling to their death behind the innocent shift of a button. The civilians are clueless on the full impact towards the positioning of the buttons. The civilians lack the understanding of war troops “Gasping of wounds, calling for water, some rattling death in their throats.)/” (11). The speaker switches back into the realization of war being an overwhelming impact, a realization which is missing in the initial
The second stanza continues the poem with “A laughing young man, sunny with freckles,/” (5). The speaker is expressing the general public’s lack of knowledge to the severity of the war. The laughing young man “Climbs a ladder, yells a joke to somebody in the crowd,/” (6) is portraying the situational irony as the speaker describes a cheerful moment, which is the later the complete opposite. The speaker displays a lightheartedly man who is updating the war map with the brutal reality. When the poem reads, “And then fixes a yellow button one inch west/ And follows the yellow button with a black button one inch west./” (7-8) indicates the movement of the war. The young man pushes two opposing buttons towards the west which represents the outcome of the battle. The second stanza displays the innocent blind dangers of war and how the civilians are reacting. The position of the buttons is senseless to people who are creating jokes and laughter when in reality, the buttons are displaying the losses of war …show more content…
The speaker presents “twist on their bodies”, which is implying the injuries on the soldier’s bodies along with “red soak”, which refers to the soldier’s blood. The “river edge” provokes the reader to imagine a pleasant setting, moreover, the outright opposite of war. The idea of a thousand bloody men, struggling up a riverside reveals the cruelity of the war. The buttons are shifting and the war impact is destructive. Numerous war troops are struggling to their death behind the innocent shift of a button. The civilians are clueless on the full impact towards the positioning of the buttons. The civilians lack the understanding of war troops “Gasping of wounds, calling for water, some rattling death in their throats.)/” (11). The speaker switches back into the realization of war being an overwhelming impact, a realization which is missing in the initial