An Epitaph A Day - November 10

Keeps Death's Spectre Away

All Epitaphs This Week Will Be Of Those
Who Served Their Country

National Military Cemetery at Arlington
1887

EPITAPH FOR AN AMERICAN SOLDIER

He was some mother's well-loved son —
So fine he looked in martial guise —
And now in alien earth he lies,
And hears no more the tuck of drum,
Nor sees the shell-flare in the skies.

Like to some seeker for a prize
In a great race that has been run,
The consciousness of duty done,
Looked from his widely opened eyes.

That Freedom have a newer birth;
That Truth, and Justice only reign;
That Right prevail upon the earth;
Man's upward struggle be not vain —
For this he sits by a strange hearth
And sentinels the Picard plain.

Source:

Braithwaite, William Stanley. A Tale of a Walled Town: And Other Verses. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1921.