Decoration Day by James McIntyre — Read

The following lines were delivered by me at ihe first Decoration of Graves in Ingersoll. I took part in a ceremony of the same kind in Woodstock in 1890, and such was the superabundance of flowers there that I reserved a boquet for the grave of young McKenzie, who fell nobly fighting for his country at the Battle of Ridgeway. The County of Oxford has erected a fine monument, with a substantial iron railing around the hero's grave, on the banks of the Thames.

This is the opening dedication / Of annual day of decoration, / And thus each year will brothers meet / To shed the bloom and perfume sweet;