For The Union Dead Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BACD EFG HIJA KLEM NOPQ RSTU OAOV OAOW XXYX XDZA2 XB2XC2 YD2XX AE2O YF2G2L XYAX RWXU B2GAX

lt i gt Relinquunt Ommia Servare Rem Publicam lt i gtA
-
The old South Boston Aquarium standsB
in a Sahara of snow now Its broken windows are boardedA
The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scalesC
The airy tanks are dryD
-
Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glassE
my hand tingled to burst the bubblesF
drifting from the noses of the cowed compliant fishG
-
My hand draws back I often sign stillH
for the dark downward and vegetating kingdomI
of the fish and reptile One morning last MarchJ
I pressed against the new barbed and galvanizedA
-
fence on the Boston Common Behind their cageK
yellow dinosaur steamshovels were gruntingL
as they cropped up tons of mush and grassE
to gouge their underworld garageM
-
Parking spaces luxuriate like civicN
sandpiles in the heart of BostonO
a girdle of orange Puritan pumpkin colored girdersP
braces the tingling StatehouseQ
-
shaking over the excavations as it faces Colonel ShawR
and his bell cheeked Negro infantryS
on St Gaudens' shaking Civil War reliefT
propped by a plank splint against the garage's earthquakeU
-
Two months after marching through BostonO
half of the regiment was deadA
at the dedicationO
William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breatheV
-
Their monument sticks like a fishboneO
in the city's throatA
Its Colonel is as leanO
as a compass needleW
-
He has an angry wrenlike vigilanceX
a greyhound's gentle tautnessX
he seems to wince at pleasureY
and suffocate for privacyX
-
He is out of bounds now He rejoices in man's lovelyX
peculiar power to choose life and dieD
when he leads his black soldiers to deathZ
he cannot bend his backA2
-
On a thousand small town New England greensX
the old white churches hold their airB2
of sparse sincere rebellion frayed flagsX
quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the RepublicC2
-
The stone statutes of the abstract Union SoldierY
grow slimmer and younger each yearD2
wasp waisted they doze over musketsX
and muse through their sideburnsX
-
Shaw's father wanted no monumentA
except the ditchE2
where his son's body was thrownO
and lost with his 'niggers '-
-
The ditch is nearerY
There are no statutes for the last war hereF2
on Boylston Street a commercial photographG2
shows Hiroshima boilingL
-
over a Mosler Safe the 'Rock of Ages'X
that survived the blast Space is nearerY
when I crouch to my television setA
the drained faces of Negro school children rise like balloonsX
-
Colonel ShawR
is riding on his bubbleW
he waitsX
for the blessed breakU
-
The Aquarium is gone EverywhereB2
giant finned cars nose forward like fishG
a savage servilityA
slides by on greaseX

Robert Lowell



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