Footnotes

1. Throughout the poem, Trethewey presents the horrible evidences of suffering: "weathered monument to some of the dead" (line 6), "grave s lost in the Gulf" (line 9), and "plaque" (line 14). These images are tied up with a phrase by Allen Tate, "Now that the salt of their blood/Stiffens the saltier oblivion of the sea…" in the beginning of the poem. It refers to the lives lost during the war and how bitter it feels not to appreciate their fight. – Jung M. Hong ▲
2. The speaker seems to be showing that the soldiers of the Native Guard did not receive as much recognition as they deserve. The speaker uses the word "half" on more than one occasion when describing the monument that is currently in place. The speaker mentions the recognition of some soldiers but not those that were apart of the Native Guard. The only monument that appears to represent the Native Guard is something that is unfinished. - Kendrick Daniel ▲
3. Tretheway uses diction to reinforce the lack of acknowledgment given to the Native Guards. She indicates that "the fort, its roof of grass, a lee - / half reminder of the men who served there -" (lines 4-5). The use of "half" suggests that something is missing. The term "half" returns in line 23 when Tretheway describes the fort as "round, unfinished, half open to the sky." In both of these depictions of the fort, Tretheway associates the structure with incompleteness. By describing the plaque that only remembers Confederate soldiers, she implies that the absence of credit given to the Native Guards causes the fort's incompleteness (lines 13-16). Stacey Elkhatib ▲
4. In this poem, the word "half" had been used for several times thorughout the poem and the word conveys the author's pity for the unfortunate black soldiers who are not being remembered and honored by many people. In the first stanza, the narrator states that when she arrived at the fort, she only sees the "half reminder of the men who served there"(line 5). She suggests that she only saw the curved names of Confederate soldiers'on the monument standing on the fort. Also, in the second stanza, the narrator mentions about the island splitting in "half" alludes the racial separation or discrimination used to be going on the fort and lastly, in the fourth stanza, the fort is only half open to the sky may also illustrate that only half of the soldiers are open to the public (or the world) let the descents know and honor their deed. -- Juhee Ban ▲
5. In this stanza as well as the next, there is a feeling of being "lost." When Trethewey writes that the ranger "tells of graves lost in the Gulf," and in the next stanza, "no names carved for the Native Guard," I can't help but feel lost. Although I initially feel lost because I have not actually been to this island, I feel like the Trethewey is trying to connect the readers to the things and/or people that are lost. We are lost, and so are they. Can they potentially be found by us, finally recognizing them? As Trethewey says, "What is monument to their legacy?" There is none, but maybe us recognizing them will develop a monument. ▲
6. The image of Ship Island as "split in half" by Hurricane Camille (1969) is symbolically loaded in this poem concerned with race and those who are forgotten because of their race. When the speaker visits the island, there are no indications of the Native Guards' presence during the Civil War. Not only are they not memorialized by people along with the white Confederate soldiers, but also nature itself seals their fate as "lost at sea" in the nation's historical memory. The remnants of the war, besides the Daughters of the Confederacy's plaque, are bellicose--"casemates" and "cannons"--or trivializing knickknacks--"tokens of history". There are no remains that testify to the humanity of the island's former occupants, such as the poet imagines in "Native Guard" in her book. The division of the island evokes the legacy of the segregation of blacks from whites, both during the Civil War and into the familial history and lifetime of the poet herself. The fact that the hurricane occurred in 1969 naturally coincides with the end of the Civil Rights movement, a normatively non-violent engagement that still was not able to entirely overcome the racial rifts in American, particularly Southern society. Alison Mattox ▲
7. The "island split in half" by an act of natural disaster. It seems to have lost the markers of the African American heroes in the depths of the water, while the Caucasian people rebuild their monument. Half of the island them seems dedicated to the white people, while the other half stands desolate...a symbol for the "others" who fought but were seen as secondary people. Water as a theme wipes away the markers of the war. The sea has devoured the gravestones and hid them from human sight. Wind and rain batter the remaining fort which will soon be worked down into rubble. The "waves intone" as a mourning song for the men it has gathered. ~Kristen Williams ▲
8. The trip to Ship Island is interesting in its mirroring of traveling to this fort during the civil war. This stanza uses quick, short descriptions to make the pace seemed more hurried than the actual tour would be. With the exception of the souvenir shop, all of the things that their tour guide shows them would be pivotal to a native guard arriving at Ship Island. It would be essential to know the location of the forts cannons and casemates for a soldier, as these would be pivotal in a war effort. These things are shown to the group quickly, much in the same way they would be revealed to "the Native Guard" when they began their invasion. The fact that the guide is not actually called a guide is interesting, in that he is tagged as a "ranger." A ranger is definitely more common a guide during a wartime environment, as a ranger is really an alternate word for scout. So this militarily involved individual is revealing to the group the location of essential wartime paraphernalia. ▲
9. This poem is broken into stanzas, with each one having its own setting. There is much imagery in this poem, the first two stanzas, especially. There are an unusual number of descriptors, including images, colors, noise, place, and time. The poem is written like a personal story of the poet because of the personal use of "we" and "us." This personal writing allows the reader to easily become invested in the plot and the feelings of those in the poem. -Cara ▲
10. The poem once again describes the forgotten history of the Native Guards, which is apparent through the title. The author emphasizes this forgotten quality through diction present in the poem. For instance, she states "a weathered monument to some of the dead," to emphasize two aspects of this unfortunate history. The word "weathered" implies the monument has been rundown and thus, forgotten by many people of the present. Thus, the author is implying that people have forgotten our history. She then uses the word "some" to introduce the idea that Native Guards were not remembered even in the past, because they lacked a monument. This is further developed in the line, "no names carved for the Native Guards," which implies once more the Native Guards were not considered important in past or present. The fact the confederate soldiers had their "names raised hard in bronze," again portrays the Native Guard were given no status compared to the Confederate soldiers. Also, the term bronze gives an additional sense of status to the Confederate soldiers. Shahnaz Rahman ▲
11. In this line, Trethway creates the anonymity of the black soldiers' graves by generalizing them herself. By using the general terms of their place in the army she strips away their individuality and any part of their life that does not involve the army. By creating the anonymity in her poem she mimics the situation of the soldiers' actual graves. This puts the audience in the same state of mind that one experiences while at the actual graves. ▲
12. The speaker points out that the blacks soldiers received no recognition and it is the Confederate ones that are on the plaque. The headstones lost in water directly relate to the mother’s death and remembrance. Throughout the book there are poems involving memory and death and there is a theme that after death all we have is memory. For the black soldiers all that is left to recognize them are the memories of those who knew them. The same is true with the speaker and her mother. The idea that only the white soldiers were placed on the plaque relates to the speakers conflict of identity. Being mixed and growing up in the south it is hard for her to reconcile being mixed, and the fact that the blacks who fought so hard in the war and were not recognized only complicates this. Greg Irons ▲
13. This question "What is monument to their legacy?" construes criticism of the fact that a plaque is made for all the Confederate soldiers' names which are "raised in bronze" that may last the test of time, not the 2nd regiment of Union black soldiers who manned the prison for Confederate prisoners of war. It seems strange that the the Confederate soldiers' names are the ones that are preserved since they were only military convicts or prisoners of war, whereas the Native Guard manned and protected the prison for the Union army- and were one of the black regiments in the army (more historical, why no monument?). It seems like the work of the Native Guards goes unnoticed (with the "grave markers" and "crude headstones" lost by natural events), highlighting the inequality that may have been present at the time of the active Native Guard. Even though there is no physical remembrance of the Guard, the fort remains with their memory and God will make a judgment on these events of inequality through natural occurrences such as wind and rain. ~Seema Jabbar ▲
14. The poem up to this point seems to describe the idea of past events in history and their effect on the present. However, this stanza makes a shift towards the unfairness of the situation that the Native Guards were put through. The fact tthat there are no names for them, nothing to their name but this poem. The rhetorical question asked at the end, "What is monument to their legacy?" is answered within the poem. The speaker herself is creating a monument for their legacy. In writing this poem, the speaker acknowledges the headstones that are lost, the elements that destroyed them: "Only the fort remains, near forty feet high, round, unfinished, half open to the sky..." (lines 23-27). Alyssa Perez ▲
15. Many of Tretheway’s poems speak of the prejudice and lack of recognition of blacks throughout our countries history. This poem speaks to this prejudice and all that African- Americans have had to face. The Native Guard, a group of black soldiers fought against the confederacy in an attempt to gain freedom and relinquish themselves from the bonds of slavery. All that they have done though and the lives they lost in their battles have been forgotten. Their "grave markers" are "water-lost" and little is known about the black men who lost their lives here. Instead those men who fought against this African-American regiment and fought to repress these black men and force them into slavery are remembered. Their names are cast in bronze for all to remember. This is a great tragedy in our history that those who fought for freedom and new lives must be forgotten. There is no monument for them except for what we have in our minds and the knowledge that they gave their lives so their descendants could have better lives. –Zack Roward ▲
16. These monuments to the dead black regiment have all been lost at sea. To make this point even stronger, having fish dark among their bones brings up images of ships and treasure lost at sea. These men, each of whom carried a treasure within their mind or heart, was lost. Like the ships lost out to sea, these men can not be recovered. This line implies how much was lost by not using these men to their full potential and by not listening to what they had to say. ▲
17. "Elegy for the Native Guards" has an ABCCBA rhyme scheme for the first few stanzas, but changes at the end to AAABBB (assuming the rhyme scheme of each stanza is viewed separately). The change at the end seems to mark the break between the occurrences of the past, and what remains in the present. In the past, no monument was erected for the "Native Guards." Their legacy, unlike that of the Confederate soldiers, had not been immortalized on a "plaque." Now, in the present, only God can pass judgment on these events with his "deliberate eye." Diana Fridlyand ▲
18. Trethewey references many elements of nature to illustrate the neglect to which the black soldiers are subject at this monument. The description of the roof of the monument says that it is covered with grass showing a lack of maintenance of the site, which she further describes as a “half” monument. The last stanza mentions the grave markers and headstones are “water-lost,” and that the bones of the soldiers are in the water as well. Lastly she says the unfinished fort is susceptible to the forces of nature, specifically the wind and rain. Thus far, nature and weather in the text have contributed to the neglect and destruction of the memorial of the Native Guard. However, the charm of this poem lies in the fact that Trethewey turns the unfinished, ill-kept, and partly destructed monument to the Native Guard into a positive thing. The unfinished monument’s susceptibility to the elements is its greatest gift in that God’s eye is able to see it. Of course in Christianity, God is the all powerful and the most respected. Therefore if God is able to see this monument as a symbol of the bravery the Native Guard displayed during the war, then the lack of a monument and sense of disrespect that humans perceive when visiting the memorial is in fact irrelevant. -Marcus Patterson ▲
19. Although rhyme is present throughout the entire poem, it becomes more and more apparent as the poem progresses. In the last stanza, the rhyming is almost overwhelming. This parallels the storyline the poem follows, which begins in a light tone. It takes the reader from what begins as a seemingly pleasant visit to more intense topics, images, and a heavier tone. ▲
20. Examining the form of the poem, it is split into four stanzas. The first stanza gives an overview of the Gulf and imagery of the steamer as it approaches land and the narrator reflecting on the men who lost their lives. The last stanza closes with the same imagery with which the poem opened - a peaceful yet ominous atmosphere where the narrator reflects on the men who were lost during the Civil War. Reading the first stanza, we expect to read about a tribute to the soldiers paid their service but we can sense of loss in the last stanza as the anonymity of the Native Guard soldiers don't give them any credit for what they did. Though the poem ends and begins in a similar setting, the attitude and tone in the last stanza is much more morose compared to the first stanza. ▲