Originally observed as a day of remembrance for the soldiers who had died during the Civil War, Memorial Day (or Decoration Day, as it was originally called) is now a federal holiday commemorating all of the men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. military.
In celebration of Memorial Day this year, we’ve added a selection of new poems to the site, including poems by Thomas Hardy, Alan Seeger, Walt Whitman, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Rita Dove, as well as a Memorial Day feature on Whitman’s collection of war poems, Drum-Taps. Read the new feature, “Whitman’s Drum-Taps in a Time of War,” and browse these poems and more for your Memorial Day weekend.
read whitman’s drum-taps in a time of war