Juliah Lowell For The Union Dead Analysis
When I began reading Lowell's For the Union Dead, I thought that because the epigraph, which means "They gave up all to serve the republic", would in a sense be a complete dedication to the Union soldiers who died during the Civil War. But once the actual poem begins, Lowell instead talks about a South Boston aquarium. What I found important about the beginning line is that not only does Lowell describe a specific setting of the poem, but he also speaks to us readers and present form. The fact that there weren't any aquariums during the Civil War period, indicates that this poem is set in the present. So Lowell places readers in a state of confusion by talking about something that is completely different from the title of the poem an epigraph
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By using this word, Lowell unites the present and past. In other words he is repeating past events. Another important aspect of the poem is the lack of punctuation in line 12. In other words we are left to wonder what did Lowell press against? Did he pressed against the glass tank? The lack of punctuation indicates that we have to wait for the next stanza in order to find out. Once we reach the next we find out that Lowell was actually leaning or pressed against a "fence on the Boston Common"(15). Lowell uses personification in stanza 4 for when describing the steamshovels "as yellow dinosaurs"(14). It is in the fixed stanza where we are introduced to the Union soldiers. The title of the poem as well as the epigraph become clear in stanza 7. Lines 25 through 26 describes how the soldiers give up their lives and everything else for the Republic. Another contradiction that I noticed in stanza 9 line 34 was when the Colonel is described as having a "gentle tautness"(34) as opposed to being angry. In lines 35 through 36, Lowell gives human like emotions to the statue. The phrase "wince at pleasure" (35) is extremely bizarre yet sad because all the pleasure is seen as positive to most, to the colonel it is negative because of the fact that he's been in war for so
By using this word, Lowell unites the present and past. In other words he is repeating past events. Another important aspect of the poem is the lack of punctuation in line 12. In other words we are left to wonder what did Lowell press against? Did he pressed against the glass tank? The lack of punctuation indicates that we have to wait for the next stanza in order to find out. Once we reach the next we find out that Lowell was actually leaning or pressed against a "fence on the Boston Common"(15). Lowell uses personification in stanza 4 for when describing the steamshovels "as yellow dinosaurs"(14). It is in the fixed stanza where we are introduced to the Union soldiers. The title of the poem as well as the epigraph become clear in stanza 7. Lines 25 through 26 describes how the soldiers give up their lives and everything else for the Republic. Another contradiction that I noticed in stanza 9 line 34 was when the Colonel is described as having a "gentle tautness"(34) as opposed to being angry. In lines 35 through 36, Lowell gives human like emotions to the statue. The phrase "wince at pleasure" (35) is extremely bizarre yet sad because all the pleasure is seen as positive to most, to the colonel it is negative because of the fact that he's been in war for so