Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Memorial Day/Mustered Out

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

MUSTERED OUT.

BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

“A soldier of the Union mustered out,”
Is the inscription of an unknown grave
At Newport News, beside the salt sea wave,
Nameless and dateless ; sentinel or scout
Shot down in skirmish or disastrous rout
Of battle, when the loud artillery drave
Its iron wedges through the ranks of brave
And doomed battalions, storming the redoubt.
Thou unknown hero sleeping by the sea
In thy forgotten grave—with secret shame
I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burn,
When I remember thou hast given for me
All that thou hast, thy life, thy very name.
And I can give thee nothing in return!