I was touched by the way he wrote and was surprised that he wrote about a very common thing. A barren land was the axis of his poem. Why?
Meaning:
I think the author, William Stafford, was trying to say that the land where no blood is shed is more admirable than places like Gettysburg and Antietam. The land where there is peace and tranquility is more hallowed than the bloody fields. Also, the land where is peace the most common things are admirable. People that pass through this place find a land where no human could touch n a negative way to harm its purity. Even the air they breathe cannot leave an impression in humans for peace. The ground will not inhibit human thought but will skin it to exemplify the purity in the being. This pure land is lost in history and never commemorated, but it will be remembered, if only for a short time.
Technique:
William Stafford uses:
Imagery--> to show the scene of a land where there are no monuments, no tombs, and no blood. The land has only grass and air passing through it. The reader can even see the bird opening its wings and see that there are no monuments.
Alliteration--> "...and an air..."
Free verse--> there are no rhymes in the poem but the way he presents his story compensates for it.
The land William Stafford describes
