Sunday, May 30, 2010

Honored dead


I can think of no one more eloquent to speak for those who die in war than Abraham Lincoln. So in honor of Memorial Day, I give you some of the greatest words ever written: the Gettysburg Address. (Image credit: CORBIS)
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* Postscript: These words were spoken 157 years ago and still have the power to transfix me, bringing me close to tears for men I never knew. President Lincoln proves that honest and heartfelt words can, indeed, long endure.
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"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "

11 comments:

Char said...

i agree

Jackee said...

I've always loved this address. So powerful and visceral and TRUE! I had to memorize it in eighth grade and it still sticks to me. It impacted me that much... twenty years ago... or how much ever I'm willing to admit ago. :o)

Thanks for sharing!

Stephanie Thornton said...

I love that speech- it's a moving primary source. Plus, it cuts straight to the heart of the matter. I kind of wish we had a photo of Lincoln giving the address- it was so short the photographer wasn't ready yet.

Jemi Fraser said...

Powerful indeed. I've actually never read it beyond the famous first lines before.

I get a similar feeling from John McCraea's poem In Flander's Field. Powerful stuff.

Tahereh said...

wow, so powerful!

Suzanne Casamento said...

It's amazing how timeless this address is. And amazing how Lincoln thought the world would "little note nor remember what we say here."

sarahjayne smythe said...

This speech remains one of the greatest things ever written, and as timely today as it was then.

TerryLynnJohnson said...

That was interesting, I've never read the whole thing - just knew the first line. Thanks for posting! And thanks for the reminder.

Liza said...

I'm late in reading, but so glad you posted this--words that never lose their power.

Laura Canon said...

When I was teaching 8th graders I did a lesson on the Gettysburg Address and one of the students paused afterwards and said "That's the Gettysburg Address? That's cool."
I still think of it as one of my finer teaching moments, and there weren't many.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Thank you all who commmented. You added a number of great insights.