"For the Union Dead" by Robert Lowell

Beginning with a Latin epigraph that means "They gave up all to serve the republic," Lowell's poem moves through several settings and time periods as it reflects on the legacy of the American Civil War. Read the poem here.
38 words 8 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Sahara
    the world's largest desert in northern Africa
    The old South Boston Aquarium stands
    in a Sahara of snow now.
  2. weathervane
    mechanical device attached to an elevated structure
    Its broken windows are boarded.
    The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.
  3. airy
    open to or abounding in fresh atmosphere
    The airy tanks are dry.
  4. cow
    subdue or overcome by affecting with fear or awe
    Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;
    my hand tingled
    to burst the bubbles
    drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish.
  5. compliant
    disposed to act in accordance with someone's wishes
    Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;
    my hand tingled
    to burst the bubbles
    drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish.
  6. vegetate
    lead a passive existence without using one's body or mind
    I often sigh still
    for the dark downward and vegetating kingdom
    of the fish and reptile.
  7. barbed
    having or covered with protective points, spines, or thorns
    One morning last March,
    I pressed against the new barbed and galvanized

    fence on the Boston Common.
  8. galvanize
    cover with zinc
    One morning last March,
    I pressed against the new barbed and galvanized

    fence on the Boston Common.
  9. gouge
    make a groove in
    Behind their cage,
    yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting
    as they cropped up tons of mush and grass
    to gouge their underworld garage.
  10. luxuriate
    thrive profusely or flourish extensively
    Parking spaces luxuriate like civic
    sandpiles in the heart of Boston.
  11. civic
    of or relating or belonging to a city
    Parking spaces luxuriate like civic
    sandpiles in the heart of Boston.
  12. girdle
    an encircling or ringlike structure
    A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
    braces the tingling Statehouse,

    shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.
  13. Puritan
    a member of a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries thought that the Protestant Reformation under Elizabeth was incomplete and advocated the simplification and regulation of forms of worship
    A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
    braces the tingling Statehouse,

    shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.
  14. girder
    a beam used as a main support in a structure
    A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
    braces the tingling Statehouse,

    shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.
  15. brace
    support by steadying
    A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
    braces the tingling Statehouse,

    shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.
  16. excavation
    a hole in the ground made by digging
    A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
    braces the tingling Statehouse,

    shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.
  17. infantry
    an army unit consisting of soldiers who fight on foot
    A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders
    braces the tingling Statehouse,

    shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens' shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.
  18. splint
    a thin piece of wood
    shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw
    and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
    on St. Gaudens’ shaking Civil War relief,
    propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.
  19. regiment
    army unit smaller than a division
    Two months after marching through Boston,
    half the regiment was dead;
    at the dedication,
    William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.
  20. dedication
    a ceremony in which something is given to a goal or purpose
    Two months after marching through Boston,
    half the regiment was dead;
    at the dedication,
    William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.
  21. William James
    United States pragmatic philosopher and psychologist
    Two months after marching through Boston,
    half the regiment was dead;
    at the dedication,
    William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.
  22. compass
    navigational instrument for finding directions
    Their monument sticks like a fishbone
    in the city’s throat.
    Its Colonel is as lean
    as a compass-needle.
  23. wren
    a small active brown bird of the northern hemisphere
    He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,
    a greyhound’s gentle tautness;
    he seems to wince at pleasure,
    and suffocate for privacy.
  24. vigilance
    alert attentiveness
    He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,
    a greyhound’s gentle tautness;
    he seems to wince at pleasure,
    and suffocate for privacy.
  25. taut
    pulled or drawn tight
    He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,
    a greyhound’s gentle tautness;
    he seems to wince at pleasure,
    and suffocate for privacy.
  26. wince
    draw back, as with fear or pain
    He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,
    a greyhound’s gentle tautness;
    he seems to wince at pleasure,
    and suffocate for privacy.
  27. suffocate
    struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake
    He has an angry wrenlike vigilance,
    a greyhound’s gentle tautness;
    he seems to wince at pleasure,
    and suffocate for privacy.
  28. peculiar
    unique or specific to a person or thing or category
    He rejoices in man’s lovely,
    peculiar power to choose life and die--
    when he leads his black soldiers to death,
    he cannot bend his back.
  29. sparse
    not dense or plentiful
    On a thousand small town New England greens,
    the old white churches hold their air
    of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags
    quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic.
  30. sincere
    open and genuine; not deceitful
    On a thousand small town New England greens,
    the old white churches hold their air
    of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags
    quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic.
  31. frayed
    worn away or tattered along the edges
    On a thousand small town New England greens,
    the old white churches hold their air
    of sparse, sincere rebellion; frayed flags
    quilt the graveyards of the Grand Army of the Republic.
  32. abstract
    not representing or imitating external reality
    The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier
    grow slimmer and younger each year--
    wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets
    and muse through their sideburns . . .
  33. musket
    a muzzle-loading shoulder gun with a long barrel
    The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier
    grow slimmer and younger each year--
    wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets
    and muse through their sideburns . . .
  34. muse
    reflect deeply on a subject
    The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier
    grow slimmer and younger each year--
    wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets
    and muse through their sideburns . . .
  35. monument
    a structure erected to commemorate persons or events
    Shaw’s father wanted no monument
    except the ditch,
    where his son’s body was thrown...
  36. commercial
    connected with or engaged in the exchange of goods
    There are no statues for the last war here;
    on Boylston Street, a commercial photograph
    shows Hiroshima boiling
  37. crouch
    bend one's back forward from the waist on down
    When I crouch to my television set,
    the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons.
  38. servility
    abject or cringing submissiveness
    Everywhere,
    giant finned cars nose forward like fish;
    a savage servility
    slides by on grease.
Created on Tue Nov 21 09:52:44 EST 2017 (updated Wed Dec 06 13:18:09 EST 2017)

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