DECORATION
DAY TRIBUTE
DECORATION DAY
POEM
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Flowers
for the Feet of Peace
Sweet
rose and lily white,
As
she retreads the road,
The
blood-red road of fight;
The
waving corn and wheat
For
the long, hot lanes of war;
For
bastions fringed with flame,
The
light of Freedom's star.
Flowers
for the resting brave!
So
every grave shall be
An
altar fresh and green
Sacred
to Liberty,
An
altar green and sweet
For
the true heart beneath--
For
each the rose of love,
For
each the laurel wreath.
Peace,
peace, and sweetest fame
O'er
all the land to-day!
No
anger and no blame
Between
the Blue and Gray.
To
you, heroic dead,
Resting
in dreamless calm,
We
bring the rose of love,
The
victor's stainless palm.
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From
the book, "Campfire Sketches and Battlefield Echoes", dated 1886, by Will
C. King,
"
In Memory of Our Fallen Heroes and to Our Honored Veterans."
New items Added for Decoration Day Tribute
OUR SOLDIER DEAD
So long
as time shall endure, the memory of the men of our land who gave their
lives for their country's cause shall be revered. Though more particularly
dedicated to the victims of the great civil strife, Memorial day is broad
enough to embrace all who have fallen in the wars of the United States
and over every known mound where rest the remains of a wearer of the continental
uniform, of a soldier of 1812, of one who climbed the Mexican hights, who
experienced the trials of southern battlefields, who fought Indians on
the plains, Spaniards in Cuba, insurgents in the Phillippines or Boxers
in China, whether he died in action or of disease or surrendered in the
course of time to the common conqueror of humanity, there is placed on
that day the emblem of our country and a blossom-bearing plant.
It comes most
appropriately--this day of memorial decoration -- in the spring-time, when
nature's resurrection fills the sad heart with hope of that other resurrection
which shall bring an end to mortal sorrow. Fresh as the gown which
now covers mother earth and fragrant as the blossoms which perfume the
air shall ever be the memory of our gallant dead.
Source: Saturday Globe, Utica, May
28, 1904. |
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2000 Laura Perkins
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