ahmad inggris

7/27/2019 Ahmad Inggris

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ABSTRACT

The Meaning of grass in Carl Sandburg's poem "Grass". School of ForeignLanguages 2013

The reason of the writer in choosing the poem Grass by Carl Sandburgas the main source that is analyzed since the poem has a hidden messagebehind its title, Grass.

The study intends to solve some questions. It explains the generalmeaning of the poem. It explains the writer's intention in making the poem.The last, it answers the meaning of grass as the symbol that represents theconnection between the nature and human beings.

Therefore, in analysing those problems, the writer uses the semioticapproach since the problems fits to it. This approach brings the theory ofsemiotic from linguistic point of view that shows the meaning of grass in thepoem.

ln the end, the writer concludes that the poem has a very importanthidden message behind its title Grass. The result of this analysis indicates Ithat the word grass has various meanings. Grass is not merely a simple plantthat grows cover the land but it also can represent the connection betweenthe nature and the human beings. As the speaker in the poem, grassrepresents as a cover for the horrible wounds of the past and it is also as thecommentary on the world's forgetfulness of the horrors of war and

destruction.


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ABSTRAK

The Meaning of grass in Carl Sandburg's poem "Grass".

Alasan penulis daiam memilih puisi Grass oleh Carl Sandburg sebagaiacuan utamanya untuk dianalisa puisi tersebut memiliki pesan tersembunyidari judulnya yaitu Grass.

Penulisan ini bermaksud untuk mencari jawaban atas empatpertanyaan. Pertama, penulisan ini menjelaskan arti umum dari puisitersebut. Kedua, penulisan ini menjelaskan arti khusus dari puisi tersebut.Ketiga, penulisan ini menjelaskan alasan si pengarang dalam membuat puisi

tersebut. Dan terakhir, penulisan ini memberikan jawaban atas makna darikata rumput sebagai simbol yang mewakili hubungan antara alam danmanusia.

Oleh sebab itu, dalam menganalisa masalah ini, penulis menggunakanpendekatan semiotik karena masalah yang terkait berhubungan dengan halitu. Pendekatan ini menggunakan teori semiotik dari sudut pandang linguistikyang menunjukkan makna dari kata rumputdalam puisi tersebut.

Akhir kata, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa puisi tersebut mempunyaipesan tersembunyi yang amat penting di balik judulnya yaitu Grass. Hasil daripenulisan ini menunjukkan bahwa kata rumput memiliki banyak makna.Rumput tidak hanya semata-mata sebagai tanaman sederhana yang tumbuh

menutupi daratan tapi ia juga dapat mewakili hubungan antara alam danmanusia. Sebagai narator dalam puisi tersebut, rumput melambangkansebagai sebuah penutup atau penyembuh dari luka menyakitkan di masa laludan juga sebagai kritik terhadap keacuhan dunla atas kengerlan dankerusakan dari perang.


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and heard in a communal setting. However, all great literature, whether a

private or a shared experience, by expressing basic truth that is common to

all of mankind, evokes a deeply responsive chord.

Literary works is writings that are valued as work of art, especially

fiction, drama and poetry. As a part of literature, poetry is another way of

expressing the author's feeling and thought. A single poem may have

different meanings for different people. Some of the answers given may have

been quite wrong. But we must have noticed that none of the 'right' answers

were exactly the same.

G. Methods of Study

The thesis is a library research using a descriptive method. This thesis

studies and describes about the condition of our world in the past and the

reaction of the people in the present. The writer uses the main object of this

analysis, namely the poem 'Grass' as the primary source. For the secondary

sources, she has read some supporting books such as the history of America,

biographies and theories on literature. Additionally, she also tries to find some

information from the internet to support her thesis.

In this study the writer uses two approaches, which are the semiotic

and sociohistorical approach.


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B. The Theory of Semiotic

Semiotics is the study systems of rules and conventions which enable

social and cultural phenomena (signs) to be easily understood by everyone.

In literary theory semiotics is the analysis of text in terms of its use of

language as dependent on and influenced by literary conventions and modes

of discourse. The terms "semiotics" and "semiology" are used

interchangeably.

Semiotic can be defined broadly as a domain of investigation that

explores the nature and function of signs as well as the systems and

processes underlying signification, expression, representation and

communication. As demonstrated from numerous cultural traces (verbal,

pictorial, plastic, spatial artifacts, etc ), the role of signs in human life has

been an ongoing concern over the ages whenever questions have been

asked about what constitutes signs and what laws govern them.

Literary semiotics can be seen as a branch of the general science of

signs that studies a particular group of texts within verbal texts in general.

Although the task of literary semiotics is to describe what characteristic of

literary texts or discourse is, it is founded on the same principles and

analytical procedures as the semiotics of verbal discourse. However, for two

fundamental reasons, there exists no generally aqcepted definition of the

scope and object of literary semiotics. First, the boundaries of literary

discourse seem to have been established more by tradition than by objective,


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formal criteria. Contrary to other semiotic discourses, for example, legal

discourse, literary discourse cannot be characterized by a specifically

distinctive content. For instance, the literariness of a text (in the framework of

the intrinsic structure of the text) varies according to culture and epoch.

Second, there is still a wide-ranging, continuing debate regarding the status

of the verbal sign and the nature of the signifying process, as underscored in

the entry "Sign" in Thomas Sebeok's Encyclopedic Dictionary (936-47). The

fundamental differences between opposing semioticians are related mainly to

whether they adopt an intentional, or meaning-oriented, description of a sign

system or the codes correlating a given expression with a given content or a

more extensional, truth-condition-oriented one that concentrates on the

processes of communication by which signs are used to designate, to refer to

"things or states of the real or of some possible world".

In semiotic point of view - which comes from Saussure's theory

language is a sign system and as a sign system, language represents

another term so called meaning, as quoted from Culler, in Pengkajian Puisi

by Rachmat Djoko Pradopo:

Bahasa sebagai suatu sistem tanda dalam teks kesastraan, tidakhanya menyaran pada sistem (tataran ) makna tingkat pertama ( first-order semiotic system) melainkan terlebih pada sistem makna tingkatkedua (second-order semiotic system).


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Semiotics represents a range of studies in art, literature, anthropology

and the mass media rather than an independent academic discipline. Those

involved in semiotics includes linguists, philosophers, psychologists,

sociologists, anthropologists, literary, aesthetic and media theorists,

psychoanalysts and educationalists. Beyond the most basic definition, there

is considerable variation amongst leading semioticians as to what semiotics

involves. It is not only concerned with (intentional) comrnunication but also

with our ascription of significance to anything in the world. Semiotics has

changed over time, since semioticians have sought to remedy weaknesses in

early semiotic approaches. Even with the most basic semiotic terms there are

multiple definitions.

Saussure's theory is related to the expansion of linguistic theory in

general. Therefore, the terms that are used for semiotic knowledge are

borrowed from the terms of linguistic. That is not only because Saussure who

has inspired them, but also when they develop semiotic theory, linguistic is

already expanding rapidly. Saussure saw linguistics as branch of "semiology":

Linguistics is only one branch of this general science (of semiology).The laws which semiology will discover will be laws applicable inlinguistics... As far as we are concerned...the linguistic problem is firstand foremost semiological... If one wishes to discover the true natureof language systems, one must first consider what they have incommon with all other systems of the same kind... In this way, light willbe thrown not only upon the linguistic problem. By considering rites,customs etc. as signs, it will be possible, we believe, to see them in anew perspective. The need will be felt to consider them assemiological phenomena and to explain them in terms of the laws ofsemiology. (Saussure 1983,16-17;'Saussure 1974, 16-17).1


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One of Saussure's theories that is used widely in literature is

syntagmatic and paradigmatic concept, it is done by Roland Barthes and

Tzvetan Todorov who classify the two concepts into syntaxes and semantic

aspect. In a short story / reading, the words are related to each other and

connected suitable with the language linearity. Moreover, outside the short

reading, words that have the association similarity in memory and become an

important part of each individual in the form of langue. The linear connection

is called syntagmatic connection, while the associative connection is called

paradigmatic connection. The syntagmatic and paradigmatic connection

can be often in fiction or poetry.

Dealing with a fictional literary work, we will see the connection

between signifier and signified. At first, we will see the formal aspect of the

work in the form of connection from words, sentences, paragraph and so on

until finally a full text is formed. That kind of connection is the connection

between signifier and signified, the connection of the whole elements. The

connection of words, sentences, paragraph or* others that can be seen in the

text is called in praesentia.

Every formal aspect, word and sentence, must be correlated with

meaning aspect - since it is not possible to have formal aspect (language)

without preceding the\ meaning concept. The connection between formal

aspect and meaning aspect is called associative connection, or in other word,


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the connection between the present element and the absent element. Word

and sentence can be seen in the text, while the meaning can only be

associated (br'bannot be seen).

C. The Theory of Socio-historical

Literature is a social institution, using its medium language, a social

creation. Such traditional literary devices as symbolism and metre are social

in their very nature. They are conventions and norms which could have arisen

only in society. But, furthermore, literature 'represents' life; and 'life' is, in large

measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or

subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary' imitation'.

Literature is really not a reflection of the social process, but the essence, the

abridgement and summary of all history. The question how far literature is

actually determined by or dependent on its social setting, on social change

and development, is one which, in one way or another, will enter into all the

three divisions : the sociology of the writer, the social content of the work

themselves, and the influence of literature on society.

The writer of literary work is not only influenced by society, he

influences it. Art not merely reproduces life but also shapes it. Much the most

common approach to the relations of literature and society is the study of

works of literature as social documents, as assumed pictures of social reality.


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Used as a social document, literature can be made to yield the outlines of

social history.

Such studies seem of little value so long as they take it for granted that

literature is simply a mirror of life, a reproduction, and thus, obviously, a social

document.

The problem of 'literature and society' can obviously be put in different

terms, those of symbolic or meaningful relations : of consistency, harmony,

coherence, congruence, structural identity, stylistic analogy, or with whatever

term we want to designate the integration of a culture and the

interrelationship among the different activities of men.


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CHAPTER III

GENERAL AND DETAILED ANALYSIS

A. General Review

Grass

From Cornhuskers- ShenandoahPublished / written in 1918

By. Cart Sandburg (1878 -1976)

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.Shovel them under and let me work

I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at GettysburgAnd pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.Shovel them under and let me work.Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor;

What place is this?

Where are we now?I am the grass. Let me work.

In this poem, Carl Sandburg describes grass as a simple plant that

grows to hide some important facts of the world in the past and the ugliness

of the land of the bloody war.

Carl Sandburg, as the author of the poem wants to tell us the good use

of grass, not as an ordinary plant that grows on the land but as a plant which

grows to cover the scary things of war that happened a long time ago and lost

so many lives. Without the grass, this world would be a bloody graveyard of


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rotting and rotten corpses. Sandburg represents grass as the nature healer or

as the world's band-aid for the horrible things that happened on the past. The

things that become terrible memories about war that will bring sadness and

regret in everyone's heart and the soldiers whom experienced the terrifying

wars and still alive until today also the people who remember it. The grass

also represents human behavior in facing the facts about the world they living

in. They become unaware and ignoring the important things that happened,

the kind of things they should remember. They are unable to recognize the

historical places (used to be the battle fields) where thousands of souls were

being sacrificed to win the places. The people who are unaware and

ignorance with these tragic memories are usually teenagers and people who

are busy with their own work and live since they live in the present and don't

know much information about the history of their land. They just take it for

granted that the place they are passing now already exists from a long time

ago. They never realize that those places can be passed freely now because

of the struggle of the soldiers. They were brave enough to join the arm forced

and fight against the enemies in the bloody battlefield without thinking that

they were sacrificing their lives. They just thought that they must fight to win

the place and be the person who will be remembered by all of the people and

their families because of their bravery and they also hoped their families

would be proud of them. To remember this, the government builds so many

monuments and museums. But only some people who are care enough to


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stop by, read and learn about the history through those meaningful

monuments.

B. Detailed Analysis

To get a deeper understanding of the poem "Grass" by Carl Sandburg,

the writer will analyze it by using the heuristic and hermeneutic reading. The

poem consists of three stanzas. It has no specific rhyme so it may call as a

free verse poem. In analyzing the poem, the writer will study it not only from

each stanza but also from each sentence. A poem is not a kind of literary

work that could be understood easily in the first reading. It should be read

over and over again. There is a message hidden in each word in a poem.

Even though it is just a simple word that we usually use in everyday

conversation, for example the word "grass". When we heard the word "grass"

we may consider it just as an ordinary word that we used to talk about in a

daily conversation but when the word "grass" is used as a title in a poem, it

will have a different meaning. For common people a poem may not mean

anything for them. They might think a poem is just a group of words that have

no deeper meaning. They will not realize the word "grass" as the title of this

poem can represent a lot of things. To proof this opinion, the writer will try to

analyze this poem as clear as possible so the message hidden in the word

"grass" and other words in the poem can be understood by the readers and it

makes us realize how a simple thing such "grass" can bring a big impact for


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the human's life. Like people always say : big thing always comes in a small

package.

Before analyzing the poem deeper, at first, we should classified the

type of the poem. The poem "Grass" can be concluded as narrative poetry.

The reason why this poem can be categorized as a narrative poetry because

a narrative poetry gives a verbal representation, in verse, of a sequence of

connected events and it is always told by a narrator. The narrator in this

poem is absolutely the grass since it is mentioned as a title of the poem. We

can also see another proof after we finished reading the poem. In the poem,

the word grass holds an important role in doing its duty to cover all the

ground. The grass also repeating the sentence / am the grass, so it is clearly

seen that the narrator of the poem is the grass itself.

A narrative poetry shows a verbal representation and a sequence of

connected events. It can be found, almost, in every line of the poem. The

poem includes some verbal representations like pile, shovel, work, coverand

asks. The poem also shows a sequence of connected events. From the

activities that can be found in the poem like pile the bodies high, shovel them

under, let me work, I cover all. If we analyze it further, we can see the

sequence of connected events. The people pile the bodies high and then they

shovel the bodies under the ground. After that, the grass wants the people to

let it work and it will cover all.


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First stanza

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo

Shovel them under and let me work

I am the grass; I cover all.

Heuristic reading

(they) pile the bodies (or corpses) (as) high (as possible) at (the battle places

of) Austerlitz and Waterloo, (they) shovel them (the bodies) under (the

ground) and let me work. I am the grass; I (will) cover all.

Hermeneutic reading

Pile the bodies high atAusteriitz and Waterloo

The title of this poem is "Grass". It is obvious that the main character in

the poem is the grass itself since it is given the ability to speak. In the first

line, it is showed that the people are piling the bodies high. The word "pile"

means number of things lying upon another. "The bodies" refers to the dead

bodies or corpses that spread around the land. The people want to put all the

dead bodies in one place and make it into a high pile. It mentions about a

high pile of dead bodies because they belong to the victims of the battle at

Austerlitz and Waterloo. Today, the name of Austerlitz and Waterloo might be

considered as an ordinary name of places. For some people, especially they

who live in that area, Austerlitz and Waterloo are the name of historical


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places, but not all the people can tell in detail about the tragic events that

caused so many soldiers from both sides lost their lives.

From the information that shows on the communication media, we can

see the facts of war. It is not about which side that wins or Ids, but it is all

about how many lives being lost during the battle. The longer the Rattle went

on, the more dead bodies lied around the land. We can imagine how plenty of

corpses that caused from those two battles in Austerlitz and Waterloo. Our

calculation may not stop at the number 100 because the result is more than

that. So now we can imagine in our mind, how high it is the pile of dead

bodies from those two battle places when they are put all together in one

place.

Shovel them under and let me work

In the second line, it is showed another activity. After the people put all

the soldiers in one place, they are shoveled under the ground. The word

"shovel" in this line means to burry the corpses under the ground. Burying a

dead body is a custom in some places in treating dead bodies. For example,

the Himalayas have the sky burials, where they (the people who live in that

area) allow the vultures (large bird, usually with head and neck almost bare of

feathers, that lives on the flesh of dead animals) to eat the corpses.

The next sentence continuous with "let me work". The meaning of the

sentence is the grass wants the people let the grass do its duty. As soon as


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the people finished burying all the dead soldiers, the grass will start to do its

work. The word "work" here, does not mean that the grass will do human's

work but it means that the grass will start to grow on the ground where the

dead bodies were shoveled under it.

/ am the grass; I cover all

In this line, the grass tries to convince all of the people that the grass is

the main character here. It is the one that will cover all the ground after the

people piled and shoveled all the dead soldiers under it.

Hermeneutic reading

And pile them high at Gettysburg

The second stanza starts with the same line as the first stanza. In this

line, the people also make a pile of dead bodies. The difference is in the first

stanza, the people make a high pile of dead bodies at Austerlitz and

Waterloo, while in the second stanza, the people make a high pile of dead

bodies at Gettysburg. There was a terrible thing happened in Gettysburg on

1863. It was a three days-battle, that caused so many damages. It was the

bloodiest single battle of the war, resulting in over 51,000 soldiers killed,

wounded, captured or missing. The Soldiers' National Cemetery at

Gettysburg was dedicated on November 19, 1863, when President Abraham

Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address. The cemetery contains


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more than 7,000 interments including over 3,500 from the Civil War. Post-

battle efforts preserved small portions of the battlefield as a memorial to the

Union victory. On February 11, 1895, congressional legislation was signed to

establish Gettysburg National Military Park, as a memorial dedicated) to the

armies that fought this great battle. Gettysburg National Military Park

incorporates nearly 6,000 acres, with 26 miles of park roads and over 1,400

monuments, markers, and memorials.

And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun

In this second line, the people once again do the same thing. The

people put ail the dead soldiers all together in one place. The dead soldiers

belong to the victims of the battles in Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under

and let me work.

As we can see, there is a word reduplication in the poem. This

sentence is already written in the second line and now it is repeated in the

sixth line. It shows that the grass wants to emphasize its desire. The people

pile the bodies and shovel them under the ground as soon as possible so the

grass can do its work after that. The grass-realizes that it has a work to do

and it wants to start it as fast as it can.

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor

The next sentence is telling about time that passed by from days,

weeks, months and finally turns into years. From two years grows into ten

years. It shows that the horrible things that happened .in those five places,


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Austerlitz; Waterloo; Gettysburg; Ypres and Verdun, are already become a

sad memory in people minds and they who remember it. This is a very

American view of history. For the Americans, things that has happened

yesterday will eventually be a memory as things that happened hundred of

years ago. Some cultures see things that happened hundreds of years ago as

things that happened yesterday. They nurse wounds centuries old. It means

that they keep in the mind or think about the tragic memories of wars for a

long time. It also can be considered that they will not forget about the

heartache even though it is already passed for centuries.

When some of those people, who live outside the America, immigrated

to America, they were quickly told to leave that behavior in the old country.

Because they now live in America where old wounds are not important, they

consider it as something that already has happened in the past and there is

nothing they can do to change it, just let it be a memory. As the proverb goes

let bygone be bygone. The outsiders or the immigrant should follow the

custom since they decided to live in America. The author of this poem wrote

the sentence two years, ten years. He uses the word year instead of

centuries as a time signal. Whereas, actually, some of the battle happened

centuries ago like the battle of Austerlilz and Waterloo. The reason he

chooses the word year is because he wants to emphasize that it takes only

two until ten years for the grass to grow and cover all the ground where the

battle takes place.


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Since the grass is a kind of wild plant that can live even without a good

care from the human so it is not a difficult thing for the grass to cover up all

the land with its beauty. The grass will then successfully hide all the wounds

of wars until there is no trace left that might remind us of the war.

The sentence is ended with and passengers ask the conductor. The

word passengers in the poem can be referred to the passengers of a land

vehicle like bus or train. When they pass the land, they only see grassy land.

They do not have any clue of what has happened in the past on that land.

They will never believe that centuries ago the land they are passing now was

a place of a bloodiest battle. It was a cracked land, where the missiles, guns

and dead bodies from young soldiers were lying all over the place. They can

never wonder that the peaceful green land used to be red and full of horrors

because of the blood that shed from the brave young soldiers who fought to

win the land.

What place is this? Where are we now?

These are the main questions that the passengers ask to the

conductor. They are very curious about the land they are passing now. They

know nothing about the place, they do not know the name of the place and

the location they are passing now. They don't realize that it is a sacred place

for their country. The place is full of tragic memories. The passengers can not

imagine how scary it was at that time to be in the middle of a chaos situation.

Everybody ran in the midst of gun fire trying to protect their land from the


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enemy. They thought they had to win the battle in every way. They didn't

scare of loosing their own lives as long as they could protect their land and

won the battle. They wanted to be the soldiers that their families could be

proud of and the country always remembered them forever. The young

soldiers went to the battle field to sacrifice their body and soul. They did it for

the sake of the country. If they finally died in the battle, they wouldn't regret it

because they had done their duty. We have to admit that the grass has done

a very marvelous work in hiding the scary facts of the war as the horrible

scenes of war are already replaced by a peaceful landscape.

Third stanza

I am the grass.

Let me work.

Heuristic reading

I am the grass. Let me (do) my work (or duty).

Hermeneutic reading

/ am the grass

Once again, there is a word reduplication in the poem. This sentence

is already written in the third line and now it is repeated in the tenth line. The

intention of the author of the poem writes the same sentence because he

wants to emphasize the presence of grass as the speaker in the poem.


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Let me work.

The grass asks the people to let it do its work. The grass realizes its

duty as a grass. It wants to make the people believe in its ability in covering

the bare ground. It wants the people to consider the grass not just as an

ordinary and unimportant little plant but as a simple plant with a heavy duty. It

is said as "a heavy duty" because the grass has an eternal work. It will

continuously grow and cover the ground until there is no ground left without

grass growing on it. There is no reason for the grass to stop its work unless

people make it stop by mowing the area.

The author of this poem picks the word "grass" as the title of his poem

because he thinks it fits his main idea about the poem. His main idea is to

show a great work from a little plant that grows slowly and continuously in

covering the land. But the author, as a journalist, wants to give another point

of view from war. He wrote this poem as a reflection of the First World War to

the people's mind. Carl Sandburg wrote and published the poem Grass soon

after the last battle of First World War ended, which was the battle of Verdun

in 1918. There are several names of places involved ih the First World War,

but Sandburg only mentioned five battle places in his poem. He chose those

five places since he was interested in those places. It does not mean that the

rest of the battle places are not important enough but he chooses them

because those places are the places where the battle costs so many lives.

Among all of the battle places in the First World War, the places mentioned


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all" as in the third line "I am the grass; I cover all". In the fourth and fifth line,

Sandburg named three more bloody battles. Gettysburg had civil war against

each other while Ypres and Verdun were the sites of the first use of chemical

warfare. These battles created much destruction and many lives were lost.

These battles are all very significant and every person is expected to

remember them.

However, line seven until ten state that grass has done such a

marvelous job of hiding the bloody battlefield so that passengers riding in a

bus or train crossing country are unable to recognize these sites as historical

monuments. They are unaware that thousands of lives were sacrificed so that

they can pass through the side freely. These people are so clueless that they

must ask the conductor what these grassy sites are.

The last two lines of the poem is the grass trying to convince readers

to let it do its job of covering wounds. The grass wants to conceal the dirty

side of mankind in order to allow human beings to continue their lives instead

of dwelling on the deformed past. Sandburg's message in the poem is to tell

readers that these events are important to the foundation of civilization

throughout the world, but they are not events that should be commemorated

by displaying the corpses of deceased heroes in public eye. The grass serves

as a symbol of concealment as well as beauty. The grass, physically, is

pleasing to the eye. It serves as a covering sheet for the previous events or


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struggle of young soldiers to protect and win their beloved land. These tragic

memories should be remembered by the people to remind them that it is not

easy to get the land they are passing now. As mentioned in the seventh line

two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor, the word year

emphasizes the time that has already passed. The sentence informs us how

fast it is the people can forget about the history. People these days tend to

take it for granted for what they have today. They have no idea of the blood

that had been shed in those places and they continue on their journey, just as

the grass does. They do not remember the struggle of the soldiers back in the

past in order to give the freedom to the people to pass the site.

The poem is a commentary on the futility of life, the prominence of

nature and the mindlessness of mankind. It tells of how even the most

extreme and significant events in history are eventually forgotten. We are

bom into this world, we live our lives and then we die, but the earth continues

its cycle, turning everything under, covering everything in its progress.

All in all, the poem Grass may give more than one meaning. It

depends on how we see the poem. So it is based on our own point of view.

Grass can represent the ignorance of human beings, the cover of the wounds

of war and as a simple plant with an eternal duty. No matter what we can

interpret from the symbol grass, the important thing is we cannot neglect

small thing because it may bring big impact to our life.


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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

A. Conclusion

The poem Grass was written and published in 1918 by the writer and

journalist. Carl Sandburg. Though its references are European, Sandburg's

poem is distinctively American in its rhythm and language. It is published at

the same year as the last battle of First World War, when the slaughter at

Ypres and Verdun was still fresh to people's minds, ended. Sandburg wrote

this poem to remind us of the battles and the damages it costed. At Verdun

there were 362.000 French and 337.000 German casualties, at Ypres a

quarter of a million died on each side.

In his poem Grass, Sandburg uses grass as a symbol to represent the

connection between the nature and mankind. It tells how a terrible and painful

scar of war can be healed by time as the grass grows covering the battle

places and makes the people hardly permit to imagine that those places now

so quiet was hell many years before. But the poem may have another

meaning, it can represent the ignorance of mankind of the important facts

happened years before. They do not realize how many lives sacrificed just to

let the people pass the places.


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Although inarguably the war gave birth to near infinite examples of

heroism and compassion, there was also indescribable and unrelenting and

destruction on a mammoth scale. In the Gettysburg National alone, over

3.500 lay in rest who perished during the desperate of this war. That so many

returned to these fields after such loss, seeking to honour their dead, speaks

to the need to and learn from this moment in our history.

We honour those who, with knowledge of what was to come, still

chose i toward into battles destined to tear apart men, lives and mercilessly

formerly whole and happy families. We learn, we remember, and we struggle

to grasp, even if only in a small degree, what led boys, men, fathers, brothers

and sons to fight and die in the fragile yet firm hope that i would prevail. In

other word, we try to remember even only a little reason for all the boys, men,

fathers, husbands, brothers and son I did in the battle is not for a useless

cause. They did at in order win their country.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berger, Arthur Asa,2000, Tanda-tanda dalam Kebudayaan Kontemporer (Signs in contemporary

Culture), Yogyakarta: Tiara Wacana Yogya

Endraswara, Suswandi2003. Metodologi Penelitian Sastra. 1st ed. Penerbit Pustaka Widyatama.

Yogyakarta.

John, Coyle Martin,

n.d., Literary Terms and Criticism, n.p.

Leech, Geoffrey N.,1969, A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, New York: Addison Wesley

Longman Inc.

Nurgiyantoro, Burhan,1995, Teori Pengkajian Fiksi, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press

Pradopo, Rachmat Djoko,2001,Metodologi Penelitian Sastra, Jakarta: Hanindita Graha Widia

ahmad inggris

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