Carl Sandburgs View of Language Essay -- Poem Poet Essays

Carl Sandburgs pick up of LanguageCarl Sandburgs poem Languages is a poem about how oral communications cornerstone vary over time. On the surface level, it compargons the evolution of expression to the formation of a river. At the same time, however, it makes a state handst on why styles are difficult to label and mark. The lines dividing languages blur very easily.LanguagesThere are no handles upon a languageWhereby manpower take hold of itAnd mark it with signs for its remembrance.It is a river, this language,Once in a 1000 yearsBreaking a new courseChanging its way to the ocean.It is mountain effluviaMoving to v completelyeysAnd from soil to nationCrossing borders and mixing.Languages die like rivers.Words wrapped lap your tongue todayAnd broken to shape of thoughtBetween your teeth and lips speakingNow and todayShall be faded hieroglyphicsTen thousand years from now.Sing-and singing-rememberYour song dies and changesAnd is non here tomorrowAny much than the windB lowing ten thousand years agoThe first trinity lines of the poem talk about how man has no firm spellbind on language. It is classifyly not a physical thing to be grasped, and it cannot be marked as such. There is an attachment between men and language, entirely it is not clear. This may be a statement on the many contrastive languages humans speak. It may not be clear when a language has completely changed into something different, or when it is merely a different dialect. It is hard to tell where the boundaries are, which is why it is described as having no handles for men to take hold of and mark it with signs for its remembrance. These difficulties arise because exactly what makes a language is difficult to determine. Sometimes it can be... ...guage dies.In its entirety, this poem describes how a language can evolve or die, and how things said in this language can change or die with it. Boundaries between languages may not be clear. Like rivers they can travel clo se together, or merge completely. all languages, however, act as rivers. They start at a source and travel. They therefore travel, merge, or fade away. Upon closer examination, the poem also says why languages are difficult to label. The reason is that they change with time. The English language of today is not the same English language spoken hundreds of years ago. As all languages evolve similarly, this applies to all languages. Subtle changes in gestures, writing, or spoken language eventually add up. After a long enough uttermost of time it is as though an entirely new language has formed, but kept the same name as the previous language.