“For the Union Dead”, by Robert Lowell.
In the beginning, the narrator put us in the scene of the old South Boston Aquarium. He describes it as a very old, rusty, sad building. Memories come in of that place and reflexions of the Aquarium.
The description continues with the city when the narrator –whose memories along the novel goes back and forth- starts to look for a bronze memorial in front of the Statehouse. He thinks of the monument and the honor to the black soldiers and the Colonel. The narrator reflects on the Memorial that honors Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th, the Union's first black regiment.
The Colonel –in the next stanzas- is the reference of the narrator reflected in emotions produced to him. The Colonel is intrepid and has no fear of death, leading its soldiers to combat.
Then, the speaker describes New England, its churches and the memories of rebellion in one moment of history. He realizes that there are no monuments to World War II.
At the end of the poem, it changes the moment to current events broadcasted on TV, such as the sad faces of black school children. The narrator reminds again of Colonel Shaw with images of balloons and bubbles. The last stanza of the poem refers again to the closed aquarium and the fish that once attracted the narrator. That place now is full of finned cars.
