For the Union Dead
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''For the Union Dead'' is a book of poems by
Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects i ...
that was published by
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
in 1964. It was Lowell's sixth book. Notable poems from the collection include " Beyond the Alps'" (a revised version of the poem that originally appeared in Lowell's book ''
Life Studies ''Life Studies'' is the fourth book of poems by Robert Lowell. Most critics (including Helen Vendler, Steven Gould Axelrod, Adam Kirsch, and others) consider it one of Lowell's most important books, and the Academy of American Poets named it one ...
''), "Water," "The Old Flame," "The Public Garden" and the title poem, which is one of Lowell's best-known poems.


Style and subject

The poems from ''For the Union Dead'' built upon the more personal, looser style that Lowell had established in ''
Life Studies ''Life Studies'' is the fourth book of poems by Robert Lowell. Most critics (including Helen Vendler, Steven Gould Axelrod, Adam Kirsch, and others) consider it one of Lowell's most important books, and the Academy of American Poets named it one ...
.'' For instance, some of the poems are written in free verse or with a loose meter, and some contain irregular rhymes or no rhymes at all. However, although many of the poems in this volume are personal, their subject matter is different from ''
Life Studies ''Life Studies'' is the fourth book of poems by Robert Lowell. Most critics (including Helen Vendler, Steven Gould Axelrod, Adam Kirsch, and others) consider it one of Lowell's most important books, and the Academy of American Poets named it one ...
'' since there aren't any poems that focus on the subject of Lowell's mental illness. Instead, the more personal poems here focus on Lowell's close family relationships, centering on individuals like his daughter ("Child's Song"), his cousin Harriet Winslow ("Soft Wood"), his father ("Middle Age"), and his ex-wife ("The Old Flame"). However, since these poems don't involve taboo subject matter, they aren't notably "
confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest in some Christian churches sits to hear the confessions of penitents. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, but sim ...
" (as some of the poems in ''Life Studies'' were). The closest that Lowell comes to addressing his mental illness is in the poem "Eye and Tooth" when, in the final line, he writes, "I am tired. Everyone's tired of my turmoil." Other notable subjects in these poems include Lowell's childhood ("Those Before Us" and "The Neo-Classical Urn"), and he also writes a number of poems about famous historical figures like
Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germanicu ...
(in "Caligula") and Jonathan Edwards (in "Jonathan Edwards in Western Massachusetts")--so multiple subjects of
world history World history may refer to: * Human history, the history of human beings * History of Earth, the history of planet Earth * World history (field), a field of historical study that takes a global perspective * ''World History'' (album), a 1998 albu ...
are explored in this book (although historical subjects would later become the main focus of his book ''History'', published a few years later). In comparison with ''Life Studies'', Lowell stated, "''For the Union Dead'' is more mixed ith different kinds of poemsand the poems are separate entities. I'm after invention rather than memory, and I'd like to achieve some music and elegance and splendor, but not in any programmatic sense. Some of the poems may be close to symbolism."


"For the Union Dead" (poem)

Lowell originally wrote the poem "For the Union Dead" for the
Boston Arts Festival The contemporary Boston Arts Festival is an annual event showcasing Boston's visual and performing arts community and promoting Boston's Open Studios program. The weekend-long Festival at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park features a wide variet ...
in 1960 where he first read it in public. The title refers to the 1928 poem "
Ode to the Confederate Dead "Ode to the Confederate Dead" is a long poem by the American poet-critic Allen Tate published in 1928 in Tate's first book of poems, ''Mr. Pope and Other Poems''. It is one of Tate's best-known poems and considered by some critics to be his most "i ...
", by Lowell's former teacher and mentor
Allen Tate John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Life Early years Tate was born near Winchester, K ...
. At the 1960 festival, Lowell said, "Writing is neither transport nor a technique. My own owes everything to a few of our poets who have tried to write directly about what mattered to them, and yet to keep faith with their calling's tricky, specialized, unpopular possibilities for good workmanship. When I finished ''
Life Studies ''Life Studies'' is the fourth book of poems by Robert Lowell. Most critics (including Helen Vendler, Steven Gould Axelrod, Adam Kirsch, and others) consider it one of Lowell's most important books, and the Academy of American Poets named it one ...
,'' I was left hanging on a question mark. I don't know whether it is a deathrope or a lifeline." The setting of "For the Union Dead" is the
Boston Common The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beacon ...
, near the well-known
Robert Gould Shaw Memorial The ''Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment'' is a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens opposite 24 Beacon Street, Boston (at the edge of the Boston Common). It depicts Colonel Robert Gould Shaw lea ...
by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In the poem, Lowell's visit to the park, which is being excavated to provide an underground car park, conjures up a series of associations. First, watching the construction of the garage beneath the Common makes him think about his childhood and how Boston had changed; in particular, the South Boston Aquarium, that he'd visited as a child, had been demolished a few years before, in 1954. This leads him to think about the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial and the history associated with the memorial, specifically, the story of Colonel
Robert Gould Shaw Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent Boston Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist family, he accepted command of the firs ...
and the all-black
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry ...
that he led during the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. Finally, Lowell thinks of the then-controversial
Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
and the images of the integration of black and white school-children that Lowell had recently seen on television. The final lines of the poem, which read, "The Aquarium is gone. Everywhere,/ giant finned cars nose forward like fish;/ a savage servility/ slides by on grease" are particularly well known for their rather dark description of the large American cars that were popular at the time, evoking a corrupted consumer society without heroism.


"The Public Garden"

"The Public Garden" is a revised version of the poem "David and Bathsheba in the Public Garden" which was originally published in Lowell's third book '' The Mills of the Kavanaughs.'' In the version in ''For the Union Dead'', Lowell completely removed from the poem any mention of the Biblical characters of
David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
and
Bathsheba Bathsheba ( or ; he, בַּת־שֶׁבַע, ''Baṯ-šeḇaʿ'', Bat-Sheva or Batsheva, "daughter of Sheba" or "daughter of the oath") was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, according to the Hebrew Bible. She was the mother of ...
who were central to the earlier version. During Lowell's 1963 public reading at the Guggenheim, prior to the publication of ''For the Union Dead'', he explained that many of his readers expressed confusion over the presence of the Biblical characters being located in a modern park in Boston, and according to Lowell, the characters made the poem "impenetrable." The revised version of the poem was both shorter and more personal with Lowell (or the poem's narrator) and his lover taking the place of David and Bathsheba.


Response

The public reception of ''For the Union Dead'' was generally positive. In the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' book review, G. S. Fraser wrote that, "the book seems to me the most powerful and direct volume of poems owellhas yet published." And the ''Time'' magazine book review stated, "Lowell is the poet par excellence of the particular. . . ndthe poetry n ''For The Union Dead''lives—images linger in the mind, the thing described is seen with stunning clarity." However, ''Time'' criticized Lowell for his poetry's "occasional obscurity."Time Magazine. "Poet of the Particular." October 16, 1964
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External links

* http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robert-lowell/13667


References

{{Robert Lowell American poetry collections 1960 poems 1964 poetry books Works by Robert Lowell Farrar, Straus and Giroux books