Yesterday was Veterans Day; the Riverside Cemetery in Three Rivers was decorated with flags and markers for the graves of former servicemen. Formerly called "Armistice Day", November 11 is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other countries, and marks the end of World War I. In the US, it became in 1954 a day to honor the veterans of all wars.
This giant boulder in the cemetery was placed there in 1903, "Dedicated To the Perpetual Memory of the Soldiers of All Wars." Surrounding the boulder are four signs, each sign with lines of a poem. Walking clockwise around the boulder, the poem reads:
The neighing troop, the flashing blade,
The bugle's stirring blast,
The charge, the dreadful cannonade,
The din and shout are past.
No rumor of the foe's advance
Now swells upon the wind:
No troubled thought at midnight haunts
Of loved ones left behind.
No vision of the morrows strife
The warrior's dream alarms.
No braying horn nor screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.
On fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
5 comments:
I learned something...thank you!
Sue
You know the author? It is touching.
No, the author's name is not listed, but I have seen the lines elsewhere on Civil War (US -1861 to 1865) memorials, so it is quite old.
A lovely tribute.
«Louis» thanks you for remembering our veterans.
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