A Monument For The Soldiers.

A monument for the Soldiers!             And what will ye build it of?         Can ye build it of marble, or brass, or bronze,             Outlasting the Soldiers' love?         Can ye glorify it with legends             As grand as their blood hath writ         From the inmost shrine of this land of thine             To the outermost verge of it?         And the answer came:    We would build it             Out of our hopes made sure,         And out of our purest prayers and tears,             And out of our faith secure:         We would build it out of the great white truths             Their death hath sanctified,         And the sculptured forms of the men in arms,             And their faces ere they died.         And what heroic figures             Can the sculptor carve in stone?         Can the marble breast be made to bleed,             And the marble lips to moan?         Can the marble brow be fevered?             And the marble eyes be graved         To look their last, as the flag floats past,             On the country they have saved?         And the answer came: The figures             Shall all be fair and brave,         And, as befitting, as pure and white             As the stars above their grave!         The marble lips, and breast and brow             Whereon the laurel lies,         Bequeath us right to guard the flight             Of the old flag in the skies!         A monument for the Soldiers!             Built of a people's love,         And blazoned and decked and panoplied             With the hearts ye build it oft         And see that ye build it stately,             In pillar and niche and gate,         And high in pose as the souls of those             It would commemorate!