Decoration Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A speaker addresses dead comrades whose rest is no longer disturbed by cannon, sentries, wounds, or battle. The living decorate their graves with flowers and pledge to preserve their memory.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Elegiac Poetry, War Poetry · 204 words
First lines
Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest / On this Field of the Grounded Arms, / Where foes no more molest, / Nor sentry's shot alarms!
Ye have slept on the ground before, / And started to your feet / At the cannon's sudden roar, / Or the drum's redoubling beat.
But in this camp of Death / No sound your slumber breaks; / Here is no fevered breath, / No wound that bleeds and aches.
All is repose and peace, / Untrampled lies the sod; / The shouts of battle cease, / It is the Truce of God!
Genres
- Elegiac Poetry — The speaker addresses dead comrades, bids them peaceful rest, and promises remembrance.
- War Poetry — Cannon, drums, sentries, and painful wounds contrast with the soldiers' undisturbed rest in death.
Tags
fallen soldiers · remembrance · graves · flowers · mourning · war poetry
What this Textopian page supports
Decoration Day is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Elegiac Poetry, War Poetry
- Length: 204 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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