Here are a few posts worth reading, I think, on this Memorial Day.
Amy Kass and Leon Kass explain why we should “Take Time to Remember.”
D. G. Myers compares Allen Tate’s “Ode to the Confederate Dead,” first published in 1927, with Robert Lowell’s reply in 1960, “For the Union Dead,” as part of a very interesting reflection on the history of Memorial Day (and provides useful links, as well).
Tom Manion writes movingly about several young men who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Susan Auld writes about teaching the young to remember the sacrifices of the past, and calls attention to two poems in particular, “In Flanders Fields” and “Grass.”
Roy Exum’s column focuses on A. Lawrence Vaincourt’s “A Soldier Died Today,” now inscribed on a monument at West Point.
Art Goodrich points out that “Many Died For Your Three Day Weekend,” and calls attention to one of his favorite Memorial Day poems.
Bruce Walker provocatively writes about “Our Holiday.”
For more Memorial Day related links, visit this link at www.usmemorialday.org.
I can’t resist closing with the opening stanza of Theodore O’Hara’s “Bivouac Of The Dead,” inscribed on the McClellan Gate at Arlington Cemetery:
