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May 13th, 2008 - we have 237 poets, 8036 poems and 17458 comments.
Analysis and comments on Buttons by Carl Sandburg

Comment 4 of 4, added on March 13th, 2008 at 10:51 PM.

The poem was published in 1905, years before the start of the Great War. So
it obviously has nothing to do with a war that hadn't happened yet. It
would appear to be a much more general critique of wars in general and a
discontinuity between people fighting a war and people "supporting" a war.

American Student from United States
Comment 3 of 4, added on May 9th, 2007 at 12:54 PM.

The buttons have more to do with there not being an understanding of war at
home, where people have never experienced its horrors. The freckled face
boy is making fun of those dyeing soldiers, because if the buttons are
moved one inch west, then it means the allied advanced was beaten back, and
the Americans lost land. This poem talks about that lack of understanding,
and the glorified aspects of war before the peace movement and
Vietnam.(Though the grisly aspects were more understood then say, at the
beginning of WWI)

Axel from United States
Comment 2 of 4, added on March 19th, 2006 at 10:10 PM.

the buttons in this poem symbolize how the high authorities are greedy for
land and measure success on how much land they have gotten victory over and
not how many lives it has costed them

English Student from United States
Comment 1 of 4, added on November 28th, 2004 at 9:04 AM.

This Poem criticeses the high Authorithies in the first world war, and it
is right to do so.

History Student from Germany



Information about Buttons

Poet: Carl Sandburg
Poem: 7. Buttons
Volume: Chicago Poems
- War Poems (1914-1915)
Year: 1914
Added: Feb 4 2004
Viewed: 3880 times


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By: Carl Sandburg

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