Carl Sandburg uses imagery and the motif of nature to demonstrate his worldly views. In The poem Languages, Sandburg uses imagery and the motif of nature in a mellow tone to convey his view that the world's nations are changing and combining, and different cultures are being lost along the way. "It is a river, this language, Once in a thousand years Breaking a new course Changing its way to the ocean". Sandburg speaks of language as a metaphorical river, in which changes course, and heads to the ocean where all the rivers meet. He feels that the "rivers" in the world are combining, and each individual river is loosing it's originality. Sandburg also suggests that each river never stays in one place, and once it is gone, it leaves nothing to remember it by. "There are no handles upon a language Whereby men take hold of it And mark it with signs for its remembrance". As water is constantly moving and never stays in one place, there is nothing left to remember it by. Sandburg feels that culture and languages are slipping away and they are not written, therefore, they are not remembered. "Between your lips and teeth speaking now and today, shall be faded hieroglyphics...". He uses imagery of faded hieroglyphics to illuminate the fact that years from now, the very language that we use today will be so transformed that it will merely appear to be faded heiroglyphics on a wall. He uses a shrinking solemn tone throughout the poem to show that it is out of human power to preserve cultures. Sandburg's poem Languages is filled with imagery and the motif of nature by metaphorically speaking of rivers to represent languages as lost cultures, constantly mixing and changing and being lo