Analysis Of The Poem Trethewey

The black men who fought in the Civil War made huge sacrifices and had more challenges than white soldiers due to discrimination. Yet in her poem, Trethewey notices that they were not given the same recognition as the white soldiers. In the poem, Trethewey repeats the word “half”. First, in line 5 she says “Half a reminder of the men who served there” (5). Only the white soldiers are remembered. Then she says, “…the island split/ in half when hurricane Camille hit” (9-10). This references the discrimination between the white and black soldiers which caused the troops to never be truly unified. Lastly, she says the fort is “…half open to the sky” (23). So, when people visit the fort, they only see a memorial for half of the soliders. This repetition conveys Trethewey’s pity for the black soldiers who were not remembered. Also “half references how many Native Guards were biracial, just like Trethewey . “Half” also symbolizes how their lives were half lived because many died fighting. Trethewey ’s mother’s life was also half lived because she was killed when she was 40. In both scenarios, their lives were taken from them at young age. They still had life to live, but their lives were stolen. In line 9 of the poem, Trethewey describes Ship Island as

It changes from an ABCCBA in the first three stanzas to an AAABBB rhyme scheme in the last three stanzas. This causes the last stanza to stand out. It is a reminder to the reader what racism does. The black soldiers are not remembered. Even their tombstones are gone. No monument or plaque was created for the hard-working Native Guards.
The last line of the poem states that even though people forgot what the Native Guards did, God did not. It remarks on “God’s deliberate eye”, suggesting that God remembers what the Native Guards did. It also suggests that God is watching our actions. The line is a warning us to end racism and discrimination because God is