american military cemetary near florence

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever the home of the free, the land of the brave.





There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom America bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of America's, breathing American air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by America freely given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an American heaven.



Rupert Brooke: my apologizes for changing England to America.