LOWELL’S POEM “FOR THE UNION DEAD”: THE CHRONICLE OF THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE Mohammad Tajuddin Assistant Professor,Department of English Language and Literature International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Abstract The paper explores the relationship between the public events and the poet’s private issues as presented by Lowell in his poem, “For the Union Dead”. Robert Lowell is the most prolific writer of 20th century America. His poem “For the Union Dead” perhaps, is one of the best poems in the 20th century English literature. The supreme poem of Lowell’s career, it is a brilliant fusion of the public and the private themes. Written in free verse, the poem, through different shifting and vivid images of the past and the present, through telegraphic language or rather compressed sentences, contrasts Lowell’s own debased time with the lively and glorious picture of the ideal past of America. In contrast to the debased and devalued picture of the 20th century America of which Lowell was a part or witness, Lowell presents the picture of an ideal past, upon reflecting mainly on a Civil War Memorial dedicated to a civil war Martyr, Colonel Gould Shaw with his “Niggers” soldiers, who sacrificed their lives during the Civil war (1861-65) for great and noble causes or dreams such as equality, economic and racial freedom and unity of the United States of America. But during Lowell’s time people grew selfish due to growing materialism in the 20th century America. Due to the lack of values and ideals, society and the civilization, as Lowell deemed, turned into a sick and decayed entity which was doomed to annihilation. So while presenting a debased picture of history and contemporary America, Lowell also expressed his troubled historical vision and deep private sorrows of mind in the poem, with a sense of loss and nostalgia. The unruly historical forces -- that changed his own town Boston in particular and overall America—created a negative attitude in Lowell’s mind towards history. He was dismayed and shocked at the materialistic change which he thought of as the ominous phenomenon, and not as a sign of development. This paper aims at exploring the issue of the poet’s private mind and its drama with the public affairs in order to understand how Lowell saw his debased time through his historical awareness, along with his own private vision, and produced, at the same time, a note of criticism of the unruly change of history and public events that, according to Lowell, resulted in nothing but unethical materialism and commercialism. Keywords: For the Union Dead, Gould Shaw, Civil war history, change, Public and private mind, sense of loss, nostalgia, materialism and commercialism INTRODUCTION the present and past in such a way that the poem becomes an extraordinary example of Lowell‘s th Robert Lowell, the most prolific writer of the 20 artistic craftsmanship and perfection in poetry. To th century America, while addressing the 20 century- narrate and present the debased picture of a decayed people of his own town Boston in particular and the and devalued culture of his time and the effects of whole American in general in his poem, ―For the such culture on his mind and society, Lowell picks up Union Dead‖, combines the dramatic feelings of his a statue or memorial relief of 19th century American private mind and the actual happenings of history of civil war hero, Colonel Gould Shaw with his 64 ―niggers,‖ placed opposite to the State House of details. In a greater scale the poem ―For the union Boston. Based on the death and sacrifice of Colonel Dead‖, I like to think, presents a picture of universal Gould Shaw and his black soldiers, who fought in the conflict between one‘s individual ideal self and the American civil war (1861-65) in the 19th century, devalued forces of society in any particular historical, Lowell contrasts the glorious past of sacrifice and socio-cultural and political milieu. ideal with the debased present of selfishness and commercialism of the 20th century of which Lowell The poem has been studied thoroughly with some was a part. Observing the civil war relief of Colonel other similar poems of Lowell and the various things Gould Shaw, with a troubled vision of mind and have been analyzed to find out the nature of the sense of loss and nostalgia, Lowell ruminates over relationship between the poets‘ private and the public the ever changing culture and demographic and events. To understand the relationship between the geographic change of his own town Boston against poet‘s personal and the public issues in the poem, the the former canvas of the poet‘s mind that he had text of the poem has been analyzed elaborately, along created during his childhood forty or fifty years back. with socio-political and historical situation and Lowell presents a lot of references to contemporary events in details related with the poem. socio-political events of American history related with civil war and many other things. Lowell, Before writing the paper an extensive study was moreover, goes back to the American history of last made on the life of the poet and his books with a three centuries in order to delineate the decayed view to understanding the relationship of the poet‘s culture of his time or to contrast the past with the private and the public events in a broader scale so as debased, norm less or devalued present due to the to make the endeavor taken in this paper easy and growth of materialism and commercialism. Lowell‘s comfortable with respect to understanding the musing, triggered up by his observation of the civil relationship between the poet‘s private issues and the war memorial relief dedicated to Colonel Shaw and public matters in the poem, ―For the Union Dead‖. his black soldiers; goes back and forth over the Based on the analysis of socio-political and historical shadow lines of long American socio-political history issues related with the poem the paper also has specially the civil war (1861-65) in relation to his analyzed the text of the poem with a critical mind in understanding of his own 20th century America. the context of the related history as well as the life of When he ruminates the poem reveals his own private the poet. mind and its reaction to the historical changes. What makes the poem ―supreme‖ (Perkins, 2006, p.414) in DISCUSSION Lowell‘s career is, perhaps, Lowell‘s capacity of Robert Lowell (1917-1977) was born in a Bostonian mingling too many issues of history at a time in such Brahmin family. Proud of being one of the members a small poem. As a result of the self-revealing of an old New England family and having musing and reflections of the poet over the decayed relationship with cultural heritage of Boston, and present and the ideal past the poem becomes the being relative to one of the renowned poets of his chronicle of the poet‘s private mind and the public time, Amy Lowell, Lowell enjoyed some advantages, events. and he had relationship with many contemporary OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY literary figures such as Randal Jarrell and Elizabeth Bishop and others. Though he was born in an old The aim of this paper is to argue the issue of the protestant family, he converted himself into poet‘s private relationship with the public events Catholicism, and by this he presented not only the and to explore it with one of the ‗supreme‘ poems of sense of his rebellion against his family‘s religious the poet‘s career. Though Robert Lowell has written tradition but also revealed his own deep spiritual many poems on public and private themes earlier like crises. A bipolar suffering from manic depressive this one, the poem ―For the Union Dead‖, which is illness Lowell, who grew later disenchanted with regarded as the supreme of Lowell‘s career, has never religion and God, became one of the ―conscientious been explored as this paper explores the issue in objectors‖ and developed a kind of moral authority 65 and vision based on both of his personal troubled his own time accordingly. Sometimes, Lowell psyche and the actual happenings outside in society directly depends on contemporary or past historical of America in particular and the world as a whole. He references or facts to judge the present and the future wrote a variety of poems with a variety of themes. of his own American culture and humanity as a His literary career was characterized by ―revision‖ whole. Thus History becomes Lowell‘s concern. and ―changes‖ like his own life (Baym, 1989, American past ‗history‘ and contemporary socio- p.2483). political events offered him plot in the poem, ―For the Union Dead‖ to judge his contemporary society- The year (1943) when the United States of America though the burden of his own family history was entered the Second World War, Lowell composed substantial for him to write poetry as he did not only and published his first book of poems, Land of in Life Studies but also in other autobiographical Unlikeness. But he got the recognitions as a poet for books such as History, The Dolphin (1973), etc. ever with his publication of Lord Weary’s Castle in 1946. His reputation was more increased by his Perhaps, because of a very chaotic political situations ―groundbreaking‖ book Life Studies (1959), in which and disturbing scenes of killing and murder of the he produced not only ―a new more accessible style‖ innocent civilians especially in Germany, in the (Perkins,2006,p.