Elegy in a Country Churchyard

Cemetery of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Rhinebeck, NY. The grave in the foreground is that of the infamous Frederick Henry Quitman.

These words, written following the horrors of the First World War, came to mind for this Veterans/Armistice/Remembrance/St. Martin’s Day. Though they were written for a different country and a different war in what seems like a different age, one sympathizes.

The men that worked for England
They have their graves at home:
And birds and bees of England
About the cross can roam.

But they that fought for England,
Following a falling star,
Alas, alas for England
They have their graves afar.

And they that rule in England,

In stately conclave met,

Alas, alas for England

They have no graves as yet.

G. K. Chesterton, “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”