Consider first the repetition of the words “pile” and “shovel” and the way in which they are repeated.
Normally, especially in a short poem like this one, one would want to avoid repetition in order to ensure that the poem stays interesting.
Many a times one has heard the phrase “history will repeat itself”. No matter how many times one hears the numbers, facts, statistics of war, humanity fails to end the cycle.
In the poem, “Grass” by Carl Sandburg, Sandburg utilizes repetition and a powerful theme to pose an especially striking stance on war.
At the end the grass simply says “Let me work” – it doesn’t need to define or describe its work. Sandburg has employed diction and rhythm that contrasts the theme of this piece.
The lines are long and flowing when he describes war and death and, when he gets to grass, which should be a pastoral, gentle thing, he makes the lines clippy and short.
In Carl Sandburg's poem, "Grass", the message of "Remembering the people that died for freedom" is distinctly portrayed.
This poem is about people fighting and dying in wars for their independence and about the poet's desire to keep these important events remembered for generations to come.
The repetition of “pile” at Lines 4 and 5 is within the same phrase so that surrounding words are identical and the word occurs visually in exactly the same place in each line.
In doing so, Sandburg conveys a sense of the magnitude of death in war – not only in terms of the numbers who died in each war, but also how war reoccurs time and again.