At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border

William E. Stafford, in his poem “At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border,” forces his readers to honor peace, rather than war, by using a unique rhyme scheme and contrasting images of what is imagined and what is reality. Stafford’s rhyme scheme highlights phrases that contrast each other in the first stanza. For example, he compares having heroic soldiers to a heroic sky by rhyming “die” and “sky.” He does the same when comparing grass to a monument by rhyming “hands” and “stands.” The most influential tool that Stafford uses is imagery that is not the reality. The poem’s title already shows his negative attitude toward the fact that this field is not monumental, but shows us why it should be by comparing it to a field that is. By writing phrases such as “the battle did not happen” and “no people killed or were killed,” Stafford is making his reader question whether places of war should be honored. By comparing a peaceful field to that of war, the reader begins to recognize that we should be honoring peace, not heroic actions of war.