Under the Blossoms of May — Memorial Day poetry

1907

Under the Blossoms of May
(By Chart A. Pitt, Bellingham, Wash.)

When the drum's lone beat sounds the "Last Retreat,"
To the star-sown fields o'er head,
And the veterans grey, are lain away,
In the city of the dead;
O'er their chambered town the sunshine gleams,
And the spring time breezes play,
Peaceful their slumbers, and happy their dreams,
Under the blossoms of May.

The stars look down o'er their silent town,
Where the marble shafts gleam white;
And shadows dim, come drifting in,
From the stronghold of the night.
No bugle's blare can wake them there,
Nor banners flaunting gay,
There's no "measured tread" in the streets of the dead,
Under the blossoms of May.

—The Gazette, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, May 22, 1907