Paraphrase on ‘Grass’
Stack the dead above the bloody battlefields.
Bury them underneath the dirt and allow the grass to continue with its job-
To cover up all the displeasing aspects of death.
Heap the bodies up at the frontlines.
Heap them up high in the combat fields.
Cover them up with dirt so the grass will labor.
Time continues to pass on and people will question:
What happened here?
Why is this significant?
The grass keeps growing,
Let the grass do it’s job.
I like how the poet used free verse in the poem instead of attempting to make the stanzas rhyme because it gives the poem more freedom from being to rigid. Sandburg makes good use of personification of the grass- the reader gets the feeling that the grass is cleaning up after mankind’s bloody wars and helps to heal the earth. But at the end of the poem the grass seems to be closely related to time passing- people forgetting and still not learning from past mistakes in history. Sandburg’ uses language well- his ‘grass’ takes on a sarcastic tone of frustration with man and the inability to recognize a tragic battle site when they see it.
Beth's Blog 
Beth,
First, great paraphrase. Second, we’ve got some personification here. The grass talks. Also, this could be considered a dramatic monologue because the grass, not Sandburg delivers the poem. That brings us to your point at the end: the speaker, or, the grass’s tone. What is he saying? I agree that he might be frustrated, but I’m not sure its at later generations inability to recognize a battlefield. The Grass seems frustrated that there’s war and senseless death in the first place. It seems tired of “cleaning up” after us. Obviously we don’t want to be reminded of death and war everyday, so we rely on nature’s (time included) ability to hide and heel.
Response grade: +