“What is a theme that is shared by Marvels in the Muck and “Blueflags”? How is the shared theme developed in the article and the poem? Use details from both the article and the poem to support your response.” (This is the response if it helps you give feedback, i forgot to put it in the first draft)

Imagine yourself in winter, standing and observing around yourself. No plants, no trees, and frozen lakes everywhere. Now imagine yourself in the same place, just in spring. Flowers flourish, plants grow, lakes flood with marshes and animals, and trees magically grow back their leaves. This theme is shown in the article “Marvels in the Muck” about marshes, and the poem “Blueflags”. Although both texts are different genres, they share a similar theme of how everything in nature will always follow a rebirth cycle. We will explore these two texts and how they each develop the theme further in this essay.

“Marvels in the Muck” is an article that talks about what marshes are and what is grown in them. The article shares a theme of how everything in nature will eventually die and grow back, and the author uses information about marshes to help develop this theme. For instance, in paragraph 4, the author states “Last year’s growth of grasses is slowly breaking down.” This demonstrates how everything in nature dies and grows back because it shows how every year, the marsh breaks down old grasses to make new space for new grasses. This is shown in paragraph 4 when the author states “New green shoots will soon pop through.” This shows how the cycle of nature will always repeat itself because each year, marshes will slowly break down grasses from last year and grow new ones for the next year. As can be seen, “Marvels in the Muck” illustrates a theme of how everything in nature will eventually die and grow back using examples of actual nature, marshes.

Similarly, in “Blueflags”, the poem also shows a theme of how everything in nature will eventually die and grow back, but instead the poet develops this theme by using imagery. This can be seen in lines 11-13 when the poet states “with grapevine trellises/with grape clusters/small as strawberries” In other words, this shows a cycle of rebirth in nature because the poet is talking about how the plants are just beginning to grow for the new spring(as small as strawberries). Furthermore, in lines 23-25 the poet states “But blueflags are blossoming/in the reeds/which the children pluck” This proves that even if the plants(blueflags) die because of children plucking them, they will still bloom, following a theme of a cycle of rebirth. As you can see, “Blueflags” shares a similar theme of how everything in nature will follow a cycle of rebirth.

In summary, both the informational article “Marvels in the Muck” and the poem “Blueflags” share a similar theme of how everything in nature will eventually die and grow back. Both texts develop the theme differently: “Marvels in the Muck” uses information about marshes, and “Blueflags” uses imagery and what happens in the natural world. Now imagine yourself in spring once again. You can see plants, flowers, and trees sprouting out of the ground and animals surrounding lakes, but as time goes on into winter, these plants and animals eventually die out. However, the plants will always regrow when spring comes around, and the animals will always come back, no matter what.