Why do have Memorials?
There is a handsome bronze plaque on the south front of the rotunda at the University of Virginia honoring its students who made the supreme sacrifice in World War I. Conspicuously clear and haunting are these lines:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
we will remember them.
Memorials serve us by working against us.
Memorials help us see our place in the bigger picture.
Memorials are meant to remind us.
How shall we honor them, our Deathless Dead?
With strew of laurel and the stately tread?
With blaze of banners brightening overhead?
Nay, not alone these cheaper praises bring:
They will not have this easy honoring.
How shall we honor them, our Deathless Dead?
How keep their mighty memories alive?
In him who feels their passion, they survive!
Flatter their souls with deeds, and all is said!