A Monument For The Soldiers

Korean War Veteran's Memorial

Washington DC

A monument for the Soldiers!

And what will ye build of it?

Can ye build it of marble, or brass, or bronze,

Outlasting the Soldier's 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.

Vietnam Women's Memorial Statue

Vietnam Veteran's War Memorial

Washington DC

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!

New Jersey Vietnam Veterans War Memorial
Holmdel, New Jersey

A monument to the Soldiers!

Built of a people's love,

And blazoned and decked and panoplied

With the hearts ye build it of!

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!

Korean War Veterans Memorial
Atlantic City, New Jersey

A Monument For The Soldiers

James Whitcomb Riley

(1849-1916)

American writer and poet