The grass is the personified speaker of the poem, an enduring force of nature. It operates with a patient drive to cover the horrific aftermath of human warfare, hiding the scars of battlefields like Gettysburg and Ypres. Driven by the instinct to grow and restore the earth, the grass views human destruction with cool detachment.

The passengers are everyday travelers riding trains through former sites of war like Verdun and Gettysburg. Oblivious to the history buried beneath the green fields, they look out their windows and ask where they are. They represent humanity's collective amnesia and tendency to forget the brutal realities of combat once physical evidence disappears.

The conductor works on the passenger trains moving through the countryside. They act as the person the confused travelers turn to when trying to identify their location along the route.