16 pages • 32 minutes read
Elegy for the Native Guards
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“South” by Natasha Trethewey (2007)
“South” is the last poem from Trethewey's book Native Guard. It immediately follows “Elegy for the Native Guards,” and the two poems look drastically different on the page. “South” is comprised of 17 couplets (two lines), and the second line of each couplet is indented. Rather than the first-person plural of the tour group in “Elegy for the Native Guards,” “South” uses the first-person “I,” and is about the speaker returning to their “native land” (Line 34): Mississippi. They reflect on their racial identity—“mulatto, half-breed” (Line 33) —and encountering Confederate monuments, like the one in “Elegy for the Native Guards.”
“Monument” by Natasha Trethewey (2007)
This is an audio recording of Trethewey reading “Monument,” the poem that precedes “Elegy for the Native Guards” in Native Guard. “Monument” is about the Trethewey’s mother's grave. This is a much more personal loss for the poet than the loss of the Black Union soldiers who died before she was born. Trethewey is reminded of visiting her mother’s grave by the quotidian (everyday) ants in front of her home because ants were present at the gravesite. Rather than teach readers about collective loss of history as in “Elegy for the Native Guards,” in “Monument,” Trethewey reflects on the emotions her mother’s death evokes.
“It feels a shame to be alive” by Emily Dickinson (c. 1862)
This poem, like Trethewey’s, discusses Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. Dickinson explores the guilt of being alive while soldiers die, and the costs of war in terms of human life. Trethewey’s poem bears Dickinson’s influence in its use of em-dashes. Dickinson’s line “The price is great — Sublimely paid —” (Line 9) can be compared to Trethewey’s line “trailing the boat—streamers, noisy fanfare—” (Line 2). Both lines employ a double em-dash to enclose content that develops the preceding idea. Dickinson develops the concept of the price of war (it is paid in terms of the soul rather than in terms of currency), while Trethewey develops the noun of the previous line: how gulls follow the boat (like military parades).
“Ode to the Confederate Dead” by Allen Tate (1937)
This poem inspired Trethewey’s “Elegy for the Native Guards”; she quotes it at the beginning of her poem. It is a modernist look at a Confederate graveyard from the perspective of a white man (a distant relative of George Washington). While both Tate and Trethewey served as Poet Laureate of the United States, their styles of poetry are very different. Tate’s poem does not acknowledge the Native Guards on which Trethewey’s poem focuses.
Further Literary Resources
This is the National Park Service’s listing for Fort Massachusetts--the fort featured in Trethewey’s poem. It includes information about the fort’s purpose, construction, and features. There are also guides to visiting Ship Island, details about the ranger program (which would develop a reader’s understanding of the ranger in Trethewey’s poem), and even a section on the history of the Native Guard (which is also helpful for understanding the historical facts that inspired Trethewey).
This website provides information about Natasha Trethewey, who was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2012-14. In addition to her biography, there are numerous links to videos of Trethewey participating in literary events.
This is another webpage from the Library of Congress. It offers an overview of the different types of Civil War poetry, as well as numerous links to poems and other resources.
This document, prepared by Edwin C. Bearss, is hundreds of pages long. It provides information about the “significant historical features associated and identified with Ship Island.” It is an extensive look at the island’s history, starting in the 1700s, and attempts to cover all important events that occurred there until the 1980s (when the document was prepared). The Historic Resource Study was created for National Park Service employees to aid in their stewardship of Ship Island.
"Ship Island Confederate Cemetery" by Find A Grave (2010)
This ostensibly-neutral site demonstrates the power of memorialization. It only mentions the Confederate soldiers who were buried at the fort with a list of 153 names. However, there is nothing about the Black soldiers who were also buried there. Notably, the site contains expandable images of the actual bronze plaques left by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. To researchers working with gravesites as primary sources, plaques like this can be perceived as an accurate record of historical facts. Omitting information—like the names of Black soldiers—at gravesites results in researchers repeating ideologically-charged content, rather than learning the complete history of a location.
Listen to Poem
Trethewey recites her work on Ship Island as part of the Poets in Place series, funded by Emory University.
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By Natasha Trethewey
