In Memoriam
a catalogue of tributes commemorating remembrance
Mourning is a temporary adjustment to personal loss, but grief is
a permanent accommodation to an altered world.
anonymous
Their Name Liveth for Evermore.
excerpted by J. Rudyard Kipling from Ecclesiasticus 44:14 [Their
bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.]
as the epitaph superscribed over the listed dead in Commonwealth
War Cemeteries on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission
On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
by Theodore O'Hara ["The Bivouac of the Dead" (1847); this
Mexican War poem, commemorating the American dead at the 22 Feb
1847 Battle of Buena Vista, is displayed at every national
cemetery by an act of Congress]
Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by
That here obedient to their laws we lie.
by Simonides of Ceos [epitaph for Thermopylae (480BC);
alternatively: "Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by, that
faithful to their precepts, here dead we lie."]
When you go home,
Remember to tell them about us,
And say: for all their tomorrows,
We gave our today.
paraphrase of John Maxwell Edmonds ["When you go home, Tell them
of us and say, For their tomorrow, We gave our today." or "Ye who
live quietly on pastures green, Remember us, and think what might
have been."; an epitaph frequently inscribed at World War I and
World War II cemeteries, most notably at the memorial for the
seige of Imphal-Kohima, Assam (April 1944)]
To me it seems that the consummation which has overtaken these
men shows us the meaning of manliness in its first revelation and
in its final proof. Some of them, no doubt, had their faults; but
what we ought to remember first is their gallant conduct against
the enemy in defense of their native land. They have blotted out
evil with good, and done more service to the commonwealth than
they ever did harm in their private lives. No one of these men
weakened because he wanted to go on enjoying his wealth; no one
put off the awful day in the hope that he might live to escape
his poverty and grow rich .... In the fighting, they thought it
more honorable to stand their ground and suffer death than to
give in and save their lives. So they fled from the reproaches of
men, abiding with life and limb the brunt of battle; and in a
small moment of time, the climax of their lives, a culmination of
glory, not of fear, were swept away from us.
by Pericles [funeral oration memorializing the Athenian dead in
the Peloponnesian War recorded by Thucydides]
There is no question what the roll of honor in America is. The
roll of honor consists of the names of men who have squared their
conduct by ideals of duty.
by R. Woodrow Wilson
Our God and soldier, we alike adore;
Even at the brink of danger, not before;
After deliverance, both alike requited;
Our gods forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.
by Francis Quarles (1632)
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud:
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
by William Ernest Henley ["Invictus: In Memoriam R.T. Hamilton
Bruce]
These heroes are dead. They died for liberty -- they died for us.
They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under
the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad
hemlocks, the tearful willows, the embracing vines. They sleep
beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or
storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red
with other wars -- they are at peace. In the midst of battles, in
the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death.
by Robert Green Ingersoll ["Memorial Day Vision"]
When an old soldier dies, it's like a library has burned down.
military maxim
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and
oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ["Hyperion" (1839)]
Between grief and nothing, I will take grief.
by William Faulkner [The Wild Palms (1939)]
He might be remembering his own good chaps, and the lost,
forgotten, and discredited causes for which they had died, but he
was remembering without tears. He had seen so many bodies, so
many deaths. Could any death now be more to him than a single
statistic? Armistice Day isn't to do with peace. It's to do with
war and remembering one's dead. A nation which can't remember its
dead will soon cease to be worth dying for.
paraphrase of P.D. James [The Skull Beneath the Skin
(1982)]
The war in Vietnam threatened to tear our society apart, and the
political and philosophical disagreements that separated each
side continue, to some extent. It's been said that these
[privately financed] memorials reflect a hunger for healing.
by Ronald Wilson Reagan (11 Nov 1984)
Some of your countrymen were unable to distinguish between their
native dislike for war and the stainless patriotism of those who
suffered its scars. But there has been a rethinking [and] now we
can say to you, and say as a nation, thank you for your
courage.
by Ronald Wilson Reagan (11 Nov 1984)
And now, that nothing but the recollection of their deeds
remains, we should become more tenacious of their glory.
by James Fenimore Cooper [preface The Pilot (1823)]
A society that does not value the sacrifices of its native sons
will not long endure.
anonymous
They were young [when they died], and they did not leave much
behind; so they need someone to remember them.
by Norman Maclean [Young Men and Fire (1993)]
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the
truth.
by François Marie Arouet de Voltaire ["Première
Lettre sur Oedipe" (1719; repr vol 1 Works 1785)]
Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East
— to know who built them. For my part, I should like to
know who in those days did not build them — who were above
such trifling.
by Henry David Thoreau [Walden (1854)]
A nation must be judged by the monuments it puts up.
by André Malraux
A civilization that builds monuments to itself has ceased to
develop.
anonymous
If a man needs an elaborate tombstone in order to remain in the
memory of his country, it is clear that his living at all was an
act of absolute superfluity.
by Oscar Wilde [Fingal O'Flahertie Wills] [Public Letter for
Funeral and Mourning Reform meeting (15 Jan 1885)]
We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tin-horn culture.
And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but
by those we have destroyed.
New York Times commentary (30 Oct 1963)
Damn all men who make war on monuments. The present may belong to
the Roman Empire by force of conquest, but by all the gods, the
past does not. A nation is surely of contemptable and cowardly
mind that goes to battle against another nation's history.
by Lloyd C. Douglas [The Robe (1942)]
The holiest of holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart.
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ["Holidays"]
Therefore, build no monument to me,
And carve no bust for me,
Lest, though I become not a demi-god,
The reality of my soul be lost,
So that thieves and liars,
Who were my enemies and destroyed me,
May claim me and affirm before my bust
That they stood with me in the days of my defeat.
Build me no monument
Lest my memory be perverted to the uses
Of lying and oppression.
by Herman Altman
This catalogue of tributes commemorating remembrance is merely
representative; it's being compiled by the editorial staff of
COMBAT as time permits. Please send all
corrections and contributions to the editorial staff at:
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