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--

7/23/2019 Robert Lowell - For the Union Dead

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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.