American Confessionalist poet Robert Lowell published "For the Union Dead" in a collection of the same title in 1964. The poem's speaker reflects on American history while looking gloomily on a changing Boston Common. After gazing at the ruined South Boston Aquarium (which the speaker remembers visiting as a child), the speaker's attention turns to a monument honoring Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw: the leader of a volunteer regiment of Black soldiers during the American Civil War. Admiring the courage of Shaw and his men, the speaker is driven to reflect that their spirit of heroic self-sacrifice is in short supply in a modern United States riven by segregation, commercialism, and insincerity, "slid[ing] by on grease."

• Read the full text of “For the Union Dead”

• “For the Union Dead” Summary

• “For the Union Dead” Themes

  • 

    The Importance of History and Memory

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-68
  • 

    Civil Rights, Black Heroism, and Racism

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-68
  • 

    Consumerism and Materialism in American Culture

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-18
    • Lines 54-58
    • Lines 65-68
  • 

    The Fading of American Idealism

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 21-68

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “For the Union Dead”

  • Lines 1-8

    The old South ...
    ... cowed, compliant fish.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-16

    My hand draws ...
    ... their underworld garage.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-28

    Parking spaces luxuriate ...
    ... bronze Negroes breathe.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 29-40

    Their monument sticks ...
    ... bend his back.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 41-48

    On a thousand ...
    ... . . .

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 49-52

    Shaw's father wanted ...
    ... with his "niggers."

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 53-60

    The ditch is ...
    ... rise like balloons.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 61-68

    Colonel Shaw ...
    ... by on grease.

    

    

    

    

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• “For the Union Dead” Symbols

  • 

    Monuments and Memorials

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 21-40: “Colonel Shaw / and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry / on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief, / propped by a plank splint against the garage's earthquake. / Two months after marching through Boston, / half the regiment was dead; / at the dedication, / William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe. / Their monument sticks like a fishbone / in the city's throat. / Its Colonel is as lean / as a compass-needle. / He has an angry wrenlike vigilance, / a greyhound's gentle tautness; / he seems to wince at pleasure, / and suffocate for privacy. / He is out of bounds now. He rejoices in man's lovely, / peculiar power to choose life and die— / when he leads his black soldiers to death, / he cannot bend his back.”
    • Lines 45-48: “The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier / grow slimmer and younger each year— / wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets / and muse through their sideburns . . .”
    • Lines 49-52: “Shaw's father wanted no monument / except the ditch, / where his son's body was thrown / and lost with his "niggers."”
    • Lines 61-64: “Colonel Shaw / is riding on his bubble, / he waits / for the blessèd break.”
  • 

    The Aquarium

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-11: “The old South Boston Aquarium stands / in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded. / The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales. / The airy tanks are dry. / Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass; / my hand tingled / to burst the bubbles / drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish. / My hand draws back. I often sigh still / for the dark downward and vegetating kingdom / of the fish and reptile.”
    • Line 65: “The Aquarium is gone.”
  • 

    The Steamshovels and the Parking Garage

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-21: “One morning last March, / I pressed against the new barbed and galvanized / fence on the Boston Common. Behind their cage, / yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting / as they cropped up tons of mush and grass / to gouge their underworld garage. / Parking spaces luxuriate like civic / sandpiles in the heart of Boston. / A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders / braces the tingling Statehouse, / shaking over the excavations,”
  • 

    The Mosler Safe Advertisement

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 55-58: “on Boylston Street, a commercial photograph / shows Hiroshima boiling / over a Mosler Safe, the "Rock of Ages" / that survived the blast.”

• “For the Union Dead” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-4: “Its broken windows are boarded. / The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales. / The airy tanks are dry.”
    • Lines 6-8: “my hand tingled / to burst the bubbles / drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish.”
    • Lines 10-11: “the dark downward and vegetating kingdom / of the fish and reptile”
    • Lines 12-13: “the new barbed and galvanized / fence on the Boston Common”
    • Lines 14-16: “yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting / as they cropped up tons of mush and grass / to gouge their underworld garage.”
    • Lines 19-21: “A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders / braces the tingling Statehouse, / shaking over the excavations,”
    • Line 22: “bell-cheeked Negro infantry”
    • Lines 33-34: “He has an angry wrenlike vigilance, / a greyhound's gentle tautness;”
    • Lines 41-44: “On a thousand small town New England greens, / the old white churches hold their air / of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags / quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic.”
    • Lines 45-46: “The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier / grow slimmer and younger each year—”
    • Lines 55-57: “a commercial photograph / shows Hiroshima boiling / over a Mosler Safe”
    • Line 60: “the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “The old South Boston Aquarium”
    • Lines 12-13: “the new barbed and galvanized / fence on the Boston Common”
    • Lines 21-23: “Colonel Shaw / and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry / on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief”
    • Lines 25-28: “Two months after marching through Boston, / half the regiment was dead; / at the dedication, / William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.”
    • Lines 43-44: “frayed flags / quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic”
    • Lines 49-52: “Shaw's father wanted no monument / except the ditch, / where his son's body was thrown / and lost with his "niggers."”
    • Lines 55-58: “a commercial photograph / shows Hiroshima boiling / over a Mosler Safe, the "Rock of Ages" / that survived the blast.”
    • Lines 59-60: “When I crouch to my television set, / the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons.”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Line 5: “Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass”
    • Lines 17-18: “Parking spaces luxuriate like civic / sandpiles in the heart of Boston.”
    • Lines 29-30: “Their monument sticks like a fishbone / in the city's throat.”
    • Lines 31-32: “Its Colonel is as lean / as a compass-needle.”
    • Line 33: “He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,”
    • Line 34: “a greyhound's gentle tautness;”
    • Lines 59-60: “When I crouch to my television set, / the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons.”
    • Line 66: “giant finned cars nose forward like fish”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “The old South Boston Aquarium stands / in a Sahara of snow now”
    • Lines 14-16: “yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting / as they cropped up tons of mush and grass / to gouge their underworld garage”
    • Lines 57-58: “a Mosler Safe, the "Rock of Ages" / that survived the blast”
    • Lines 61-62: “Colonel Shaw / is riding on his bubble”
    • Lines 67-68: “a savage servility / slides by on grease”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “South,” “stands”
    • Line 2: “Sahara,” “snow,” “broken,” “boarded”
    • Line 3: “bronze”
    • Line 7: “burst,” “bubbles”
    • Line 8: “cowed, compliant”
    • Line 9: “draws,” “sigh still”
    • Line 10: “dark downward”
    • Line 11: “morning,” “March”
    • Line 13: “Boston,” “Common,” “Behind,” “cage”
    • Line 14: “grunting”
    • Line 15: “grass”
    • Line 16: “gouge,” “garage”
    • Line 17: “spaces”
    • Lines 17-18: “civic / sandpiles”
    • Line 19: “girdle,” “Puritan-pumpkin,” “girders”
    • Line 21: “shaking,” “Shaw”
    • Line 24: “propped,” “plank”
    • Line 25: “months,” “marching”
    • Line 26: “dead”
    • Line 27: “dedication”
    • Line 28: “bronze,” “breathe”
    • Line 31: “Colonel”
    • Line 32: “compass”
    • Line 35: “pleasure”
    • Line 36: “privacy”
    • Line 37: “lovely”
    • Line 38: “peculiar power,” “life”
    • Line 39: “leads,” “black”
    • Line 40: “bend,” “back”
    • Line 43: “sparse, sincere,” “frayed flags”
    • Line 44: “graveyards,” “Grand”
    • Line 45: “stone statues,” “Soldier”
    • Line 46: “slimmer”
    • Line 47: “wasp-waisted,” “muskets”
    • Line 48: “muse”
    • Line 55: “Boylston”
    • Line 56: “boiling”
    • Line 57: “Safe”
    • Line 58: “survived,” “Space”
    • Line 59: “set”
    • Line 60: “school-children”
    • Line 62: “bubble”
    • Line 64: “blessèd break”
    • Line 66: “finned,” “forward,” “fish”
    • Lines 67-68: “savage servility / slides”

• “For the Union Dead” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Compliant
  • Cowed
  • Vegetating
  • Barbed
  • Galvanized
  • Cropped up
  • Gouge
  • Luxuriate
  • Girders
  • Girdle
  • Colonel Shaw, the Infantry, and St. Gaudens
  • Bell-cheeked
  • Relief
  • Splint
  • William James
  • Vigilance
  • Wasp-waisted
  • Shaw's father wanted no monument
  • Hiroshima
  • Mosler Safe
  • Rock of Ages
  • Servility
  • (Location in poem: Line 8: “the noses of the cowed, compliant fish”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “For the Union Dead”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “For the Union Dead” Speaker

• “For the Union Dead” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “For the Union Dead”

• More “For the Union Dead” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to Lowell himself reading the poem aloud.

    • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Lowell's life and work.

    • An Interview with Lowell — Watch an interview in which Lowell discusses poetry with fellow poet Richard Wilbur.

    • Lowell's Legacy — Read an article honoring Lowell's 100th birthday and discussing his continuing influence.

    • The 54th Regiment — Learn more about the soldiers depicted in the memorial the poem describes.

    • Lowell's Struggles — Read a New Yorker article that describes Lowell's wild and difficult life.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Lowell

    • Night Sweat

    • Skunk Hour

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