I think LoweII studied with both AIIen Tate and John Crowe Ransom, didn't he? I Iove this poem of LoweII's. It's not a confessionaI poem, as so many of the ones he wrote around this time period were; it's rather a musing on the spirituaI state of our nation in the post war time period. Everything is changing and in a sense becoming degraded. A parking Iot is a "civic sand piIe," and giant finned cars have a "savage civiIity," or a civiIity that's bareIy there. Our aggressions are bareIy contained. Virtue is repIaced whoIIy by consumerism, and the sordid aspects of our history are repressed. Shaw's statue sticks Iike a fishbone in the city's throat. We were not at war in 1960 when the poem was composed (except our Iong hot-coId one with the Soviet Union) but we soon wouId be as the miIitary-industriaI compIex that Ike warned us about was heII bent on getting us to spend biIIions of doIIars fighting a Iosing war in Vietnam. A few years Iater, LoweII wrote a beautifuI anti-war poem as the tragedy of Vietnam was Iooming on the horizon: Waking EarIy Sunday Morning. The Iast stanza of this poem is just beautifuI, and Norman MaiIer documents him reading the poem at a gathering in 1967 the night before the famous march on the pentagon, where they aII got themseIves arrested. His document of this event was caIIed "The Armies of the Night." This is the Iast stanza of the poem: Pity the planet, all joy gone from this sweet volcanic cone; peace to our children when they fall in small war on the heels of small war - until the end of time to police the earth, a ghost orbiting forever lost in our monotonous sublime.
today july-18 2024 heather cox Richardson wrote fine remembrance of the 54th... but it was lowell that moved me so much. lowell, an Adult Child of an Alcoholic. booze, pills and cigarettes, himself. probably closed head injuries ( CHI) from the car wreck in which he disfigured jean stafford . Lowell came from an old, blue blood, patrician family. Lawrence Lowell Harvard president, a distant relative. the diametric opposite of someone like JD Vance. or my paternal Czechoslovakian grandmother ( a street urchin) from the levee in chicago. Lowell a two time pulitzer, at times so fluid…. I think it’s Lowell’s most visionary poem. and the way he reads it, is too good.
in the later 80s, on PBS, I recall seeing a program about Robert Lowell, using "For the Union Dead" as it's centerpiece. I didn't see the whole episode so I didn't catch the beginning. Is it up anywhere on YT? Thank you for posting this reading by Robert Lowell. Oddly enough, I saw the show just after my reenacting unit became involved with the movie; GLORY. I took a copy of the poem with me and read it while participating in the film.
+robert alpert Thank you. It IS the show I saw on PBS. It is just as poignant now as then. "For the Union Dead" had to be one of the best American poems of the postwar period. I think he sensed that racism unresolved, would be the cause of the death of our republic.
+Frank Carmack Another thing I sense from the poem is his deep anguish that what Shaw and the 54th fought and died for, by the 1960s, still had not truly been realized. Grief....futility....failure....
One of the best poems of the Twentieth Century. Blunt yet understated. Colloquial yet rhythmic. It truly is a masterpiece.
I'm blown away. I wish that we all could be patient enough to listen to this poem about those who gave what was so precious in return for so little.
Thank you for sharing. Lowell is an excellent reader!
This poem is awesome. I once heard it set to music. Wish I could find that again
"For the Union Dead" was set to music in the PBS show which is referenced above.
If one listens to Allen Tate's "Ode To The Confederate Dead" and then listen to this, you come close to the essence of America.
I think LoweII studied with both AIIen Tate and John Crowe Ransom, didn't he? I Iove this poem of LoweII's. It's not a confessionaI poem, as so many of the ones he wrote around this time period were; it's rather a musing on the spirituaI state of our nation in the post war time period. Everything is changing and in a sense becoming degraded. A parking Iot is a "civic sand piIe," and giant finned cars have a "savage civiIity," or a civiIity that's bareIy there. Our aggressions are bareIy contained. Virtue is repIaced whoIIy by consumerism, and the sordid aspects of our history are repressed. Shaw's statue sticks Iike a fishbone in the city's throat. We were not at war in 1960 when the poem was composed (except our Iong hot-coId one with the Soviet Union) but we soon wouId be as the miIitary-industriaI compIex that Ike warned us about was heII bent on getting us to spend biIIions of doIIars fighting a Iosing war in Vietnam. A few years Iater, LoweII wrote a beautifuI anti-war poem as the tragedy of Vietnam was Iooming on the horizon: Waking EarIy Sunday Morning. The Iast stanza of this poem is just beautifuI, and Norman MaiIer documents him reading the poem at a gathering in 1967 the night before the famous march on the pentagon, where they aII got themseIves arrested. His document of this event was caIIed "The Armies of the Night." This is the Iast stanza of the poem:
Pity the planet, all joy gone
from this sweet volcanic cone;
peace to our children when they fall
in small war on the heels of small
war - until the end of time
to police the earth, a ghost
orbiting forever lost
in our monotonous sublime.
I haven't heard this since 1975. So much has changed, but so little.
today july-18 2024 heather cox Richardson wrote fine remembrance of the 54th...
but it was lowell that moved me so much. lowell, an Adult Child of an Alcoholic. booze, pills and cigarettes, himself. probably closed head injuries ( CHI) from the car wreck in which he disfigured jean stafford .
Lowell came from an old, blue blood, patrician family. Lawrence Lowell Harvard president, a distant relative.
the diametric opposite of someone like JD Vance. or my paternal Czechoslovakian grandmother ( a street urchin) from the levee in chicago.
Lowell a two time pulitzer, at times so fluid….
I think it’s Lowell’s most visionary poem. and the way he reads it, is too good.
Poem ends at 4:02
In many places, he almost sings.
Amazing, thank you for sharing.
Magnificent.
What a great poet
in the later 80s, on PBS, I recall seeing a program about Robert Lowell, using "For the Union Dead" as it's centerpiece. I didn't see the whole episode so I didn't catch the beginning. Is it up anywhere on YT? Thank you for posting this reading by Robert Lowell. Oddly enough, I saw the show just after my reenacting unit became involved with the movie; GLORY. I took a copy of the poem with me and read it while participating in the film.
+Frank Carmack I have it but it is on tape --if I can convert it to disc I will try and upload it
Thank you-it, as i remember, was a very moving piece
+Frank Carmack Frank it is online (I assume this is what you sawwww.learner.org/catalog/extras/vvspot/Lowell.html
+robert alpert Thank you. It IS the show I saw on PBS. It is just as poignant now as then. "For the Union Dead" had to be one of the best American poems of the postwar period. I think he sensed that racism unresolved, would be the cause of the death of our republic.
+Frank Carmack Another thing I sense from the poem is his deep anguish that what Shaw and the 54th fought and died for, by the 1960s, still had not truly been realized. Grief....futility....failure....
Thanks for posting this wonderful poem.
Do you know when and where he read this?
This is an earlier draft
I can find out. He did a series of poems at this event.
So when did they close the aquarium?
A Sahara of snow
lowell was the guy
Great to see Lowell is still resonating with a new generation.
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