Two Poems for Memorial Day (Part 1)

According to Roman poet and satirist Horace (65-8 B.C.), "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (It is sweet and seemly to die for one's country)." Is it? Today read the poem "Memorial Day" by American poet Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918).

(Tomorrow: a poem by Wilfred Owen)

Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, as a member

of the Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment,

United States Army, c. 1918

"The Camel's Back" (Chapter V of V) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Yesterday: Chapter IV of "The Camel's Back")

"The scene that followed will go down forever in the annals of the Tallyho Club." So begins Chapter V, the conclusion, of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Camel's Back" (1920). To continue reading that early short story of his and to continue reading Chapter V, the conclusion, of that story, click here.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

American writer

"The Camel's Back" (Chapter IV of V) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Yesterday: Chapter III of "The Camel's Back")

"This paradise of frail foundation was broken into by the sounds of a general ingress to the ballroom; the cotillion was beginning." So begins Chapter IV of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Camel's Back" (1920). To continue reading that early short story of his and to continue reading Chapter IV of that story, click here.

(Tomorrow: Chapter V of "The Camel's Back")

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

American writer

"The Camel's Back" (Chapter III of V) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Yesterday: Chapter II of "The Camel's Back")

"The Howard Tates are, as every one who lives in Toledo knows, the most formidable people in town." So begins Chapter III of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Camel's Back" (1920). To continue reading that early short story of his and to continue reading Chapter III of that story, click here.

(Tomorrow: Chapter IV of "The Camel's Back")

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

American writer

"The Camel's Back" (Chapter II of V) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Yesterday: Chapter I of "The Camel's Back")

"Mrs. Nolak was short and ineffectual looking, and on the cessation of the world war had belonged for a while to one of the new nationalities." So begins Chapter II of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Camel's Back" (1920). To continue reading that early short story of his and to continue reading Chapter II of that story, click here.

(Tomorrow: Chapter III of "The Camel's Back")

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

American writer

"The Camel's Back" (Chapter I of V) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The glazed eye of the tired reader resting for a second on the above title will presume it to be merely metaphorical. Stories about the cup and the lip and the bad penny and the new broom rarely have anything to do with cups or lips or pennies or brooms. This story is the exception. It has to do with a material, visible and large-as-life camel's back." So begins F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Camel's Back" (1920). To continue reading Chapter I of that story, click here.

(Tomorrow: Chapter II of "The Camel's Back")

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

American writer