Walt Whitman’s “Reconciliation,” expels a feeling of post-war misery upon the reader, while “Grass”, written by Carl Sandburg, releases the depressing truth that as time goes on, those who die for their people are forever forgotten under the soil they fought upon. Both poems were written about the end of a war, as “Reconciliation,” demonstrates that once the war is over, nothing of value is gained, but many innocent “enemies” are dead, whereas “Grass,” represents that our soldiers fight for their country, although their country doesn’t respect the lives lost, but rather buries them under the undeserving grass, to decompose within the Earth they once walked on, and eventually forget that they even existed, war is not beautiful.
War is an inescapable factor of natural …show more content…
Those who have to, “pile them high at Gettysburg, And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun,” (Sandburg, Grass, 4-5), see the real destruction that war causes. Regular civilians hear about the death tolls, but they are just numbers, whereas the people who pile up the bodies of the dead, witness the real loss of war. Many, many bodies come back from a war lifeless, to be placed in a pile, and then be buried in the ground for eternity. When a man who served for his country sees the body of that who he killed, he realises that, “[his] enemy is dead, a man divine as [himself] is dead.” (Whitman, Reconciliation, 4). In this very moment, the soldier realised that he succeeded in completing his job, but the agony of what he had done catches up with him. He comes to the conclusion that it was wrong to kill this innocent man, as he was a brave man, just like the soldier himself, who was fighting for his country. Fighting for one's beliefs is a tremendous thing to do, but the consequences of internal mourning, is a factor that comes with fighting in a
War is an inescapable factor of natural …show more content…
Those who have to, “pile them high at Gettysburg, And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun,” (Sandburg, Grass, 4-5), see the real destruction that war causes. Regular civilians hear about the death tolls, but they are just numbers, whereas the people who pile up the bodies of the dead, witness the real loss of war. Many, many bodies come back from a war lifeless, to be placed in a pile, and then be buried in the ground for eternity. When a man who served for his country sees the body of that who he killed, he realises that, “[his] enemy is dead, a man divine as [himself] is dead.” (Whitman, Reconciliation, 4). In this very moment, the soldier realised that he succeeded in completing his job, but the agony of what he had done catches up with him. He comes to the conclusion that it was wrong to kill this innocent man, as he was a brave man, just like the soldier himself, who was fighting for his country. Fighting for one's beliefs is a tremendous thing to do, but the consequences of internal mourning, is a factor that comes with fighting in a