Term Papers on For The Union Dead

Term Paper Title	For The Union Dead
# of Words	567
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.27

For the Union Dead

            « For the Union Dead ‘’written by Robert Lowell begins with three distinct features,  the Boston landscape, Boston Aqaurium and a monument commending Colonel Shaw and his “negro regiment” whom faught in the civil war.  Together these three features converge into one meaning that can better be described as being symbolistic to American History.

            The Boston Landscape, known to be bustling and chaoitic at times, serves to symbolize the present day.  Although Lowell refreanes form ocking the present day, he makes it clear that in no way have Americans cherished their history.  This is seen through the representation of Colonel Shaw’s monument, which symbolizes the isolation of the past.  Working together, the Boston Aquarium as well as the forgotten monument have isolated both nature and history, both great aspects that are needed for a nation to prosper.  The aquarium no longer holds water, “the tanks run airy dry,” showing a haunting picture of total disregard for nature.  Lowell refers to bot the monument and aquarium as “monument sticks like a fishbone / in the city's throat."

            Both aquarium and monument awaken a consciousness of the past in the speaker's mind, or more precisely, two aspects of the past. However, there we find suggestions in the poem that the aquarium and the monument, nature and history, will get their own back some day.

            The aquarium gains increasing symbolic density through accretions of meaning that are built up as the poem develops. The prime association of the aquarium and fish
is affirmed in the first stanza by the reference to the bronze weathervane cod and is
expanded in the third by reference to "the dark downward and vegetating kingdom...

This is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Digital Term Papers. Please register below now!

Digital Term Papers has over 63,000 essays, term papers, and book notes online. Many paper sites will charge you hundreds of dollars for a single paper. Digital Term Papers only charges $14.95 for a one month membership with instant account activation!

Don't waste anymore time! Join NOW!!!

1 Month (automatic renewal) ($14.95)

3 Months (automatic renewal) ($29.95)

6 Months (one-time billing) ($39.95)

Pay by: