robert lowell - for the union dead
TRANSCRIPT
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7/23/2019 Robert Lowell - For the Union Dead
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Robert Lowell- For the Union Dead
"Relinquunt Omnia Servare Rem Publicam."
The old South Boston Aquarium stands
in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded.
The bronze weathervane od has lost half its sales.The air! tanks are dr!.
"ne m! nose rawled like a snail on the #lass$
m! hand tin#led
to burst the bubbles
driftin# from the noses of the owed% om&liant fish.
'! hand draws bak. I often si#h still
for the dark downward and ve#etatin# kin#dom
of the fish and re&tile. "ne mornin# last 'arh%
I &ressed a#ainst the new barbed and #alvanized
fene on the Boston (ommon. Behind their a#e%!ellow dinosaur steamshovels were #runtin#
as the! ro&&ed u& tons of mush and #rass
to #ou#e their underworld #ara#e.
)arkin# s&aes lu*uriate like ivi
sand&iles in the heart of Boston.
A #irdle of oran#e% )uritan-&um&kin olored #irders
braes the tin#lin# Statehouse%
shakin# over the e*avations% as it faes (olonel Shaw
and his bell-heeked +e#ro infantr!
on St. ,audens shakin# (ivil ar relief%
&ro&&ed b! a &lank s&lint a#ainst the #ara#es earthquake.
Two months after marhin# throu#h Boston%
half the re#iment was dead$
at the dediation%
illiam /ames ould almost hear the bronze +e#roes breathe.
Their monument stiks like a fishbone
in the it!s throat.
Its (olonel is as lean
as a om&ass-needle.
0e has an an#r! wrenlike vi#ilane%
a #re!hounds #entl! tautness$he seems to wine at &leasure%
and suffoate for &riva!.
0e is out of bounds now. 0e re1oies in mans lovel!%
&euliar &ower to hoose life and die--
when he leads his blak soldiers to death%
he annot bend his bak.
"n a thousand small town +ew 2n#land #reens%
the old white hurhes hold their air
of s&arse% sinere rebellion$ fra!ed fla#s
quilt the #rave!ards of the ,rand Arm! of the 3e&ubli.
The stone statues of the abstrat Union Soldier
#row slimmer and !oun#er eah !ear--
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was&-waisted% the! doze over muskets
and muse throu#h their sideburns . . .
Shaws father wanted no monument
e*e&t the dith%
where his sons bod! was thrown
and lost with his 4ni##ers.4
The dith is nearer.
There are no statues for the last war here$
on Bo!lston Street% a ommerial &hoto#ra&h
shows 0iroshima boilin#
over a 'osler Safe% the 43ok of A#es4
that survived the blast. S&ae is nearer.
hen I rouh to m! television set%
the drained faes of +e#ro shool-hildren rise like balloons.
(olonel Shaw
is ridin# on his bubble%
he waits
for the bless5d break.
The Aquarium is #one. 2ver!where%
#iant finned ars nose forward like fish$
a sava#e servilit!
slides b! on #rease.