Verses for the fallen
Verses for the fallen
On Memorial Day, we honor those who have died in defense of the nation. To express our gratitude, we offer these words from poets Siegfried Sassoon, who wrote from the trenches in World War I, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose famous ode to patriots of the American Revolution has become a staple of this holiday.
I stood with the Dead, so forsaken and still:
When dawn was grey I stood with the dead.
And my slow heart said, ‘You must kill, you must kill:
‘Soldier, soldier, morning is red.’
On the shapes of the slain in their crumpled disgrace
I stared for a while in the thin cold rain…
‘O lad that I loved, there is rain on your face,
‘And your eyes are blurred and sick like the plain.’
I stood with the Dead… They were dead; they were dead;
My heart and my head beat a march of dismay:
And gusts of the wind came dulled by the guns.
‘Fall in!’ I shouted; ‘Fall in for your pay!’
— From “I Stood With the Dead, “Siegfried Sassoon
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
— From “Concord Hymn,” Ralph Waldo Emerson