graphic  
The Daily  
heading  
level 4  
MAY 24, 2020  
link  
graphic  
Annika Neklason headshot  
heading  
level 3  
link  
Annika Neklason  
  
Assistant editor  
It’s nearly Memorial Day. To commemorate, we’re revisiting a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  
Then: This holiday tends to be a day spent in contemplation, in the great outdoors.  
If you’re  
unable to take on such adventures today, bask in the work of John Muir and read about the journeys  
of yesteryear, with four selections from our archives.  
heading  
level 1  
A Poem for Memorial Day  
(SUSAN WALSH  slash  AP)  
link  
Decoration Day  
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  
Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest  
On this Field of Grounded Arms,  
Where foes no more molest,  
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!  
star  star  star  
Ye have slept on the ground before,  
And started to your feet  
At the cannon’s sudden roar,  
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.  
star  star  star  
But in this camp of Death  
No sound your slumber breaks;  
Here is no fevered breath,  
No wound that bleeds and aches.  
star  star  star  
All is repose and peace,  
Untrampled lies the sod;  
The shouts of battle cease,  
It is the Truce of God!  
star  star  star  
Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!  
The thoughts of men shall be  
As sentinels to keep  
Your rest from danger free.  
star  star  star  
Your silent tents of green  
We deck with fragrant flowers  
Yours has the suffering been,  
The memory shall be ours.  
About this poem  
Decoration Day,  a remembrance honoring the Civil War dead, was first published in our June 1882  
issue.  
As our poetry editor David Barber explains,  
link  
the piece predates the Memorial Day holiday as  
link  
we know it:  
The poem pays tribute to what was then a new form of civic observance: a day set aside to  
commemorate those who had perished in the Civil War, by placing flags and flowers on soldiers’  
graves, a custom that gradually gave rise to our modern Memorial Day honoring all who give their  
lives in military service.  
Its first readers likely felt an elegiac pang all the more acutely: By  
the time the poem circulated in the June 1882 Atlantic, it would have been national news that  
Longfellow had died just a few weeks earlier at his home in Cambridge, at the age of 75.  
heading  
level 1  
Four Adventure Reads  
(ERIC RISBERG  slash  AP)  
link  
HIKE THE SIERRA WITH JOHN MUIR  
dot  
Decades before Yosemite Valley became a national park, Muir made a home for himself in the area.  
His journal entries from those years provide a window into a daily life full of wild beauty and  
free from responsibility: He leads a meandering months long excursion with a flock of sheep at his  
heels, sleeps on a boulder beneath a waterfall, and faces off with more than one bear.  
link  
UNICYCLE UP AND DOWN MOUNTAINS  
dot  
Mountain biking?  
Too  safe and slow  for George Peck, who taught himself to ride a unicycle through  
boulder fields and along snow crusted mountain trails, and even jump it over picnic tables.  
At the  
age of 56, he was still doing it, and he wasn’t alone: In a 1997 profile, the writer Michael Finkel  
detailed how Peck, through his strange obsession, helped invent a sport.  
link  
CLIMB THE WORLD’S TALLEST TREES  
dot  
A year later, Finkel went deep into the country’s national forests with the practitioners of  
another strange sport: technical tree climbing.  
He described an organization of hundreds of  
recreational climbers who dedicated their time to scaling immense and ancient trees in strong  
winds, through nasty injuries, and, at times, behind park rangers’ backs.  
The more stressful life on the ground becomes, the more some people feel the need to take time out  
in trees,  one climber told him.  
link  
SCALE PEAKS IN IRAN  
dot  
Climbing a 15,912 foot mountain as part of a cultural exchange in 2011, Gregory Crouch found  
himself navigating both political suspicions and a freezing thunderstorm.  
But the difficult ascent  
became a shared escape and a bridge.  Mountains is free land,  one of his Iranian hosts observed.  
Everybody in the mountains is member of this same country.  
(HERITAGE IMAGES  slash  GETTY)  
If an escape to the mountains isn’t possible, here are a few slightly less adventurous suggestions  
for the holiday.  
Get engrossed in a new book, whatever your mood.  
Our warm weather  
link  
reading list  
offers something for  
every craving, whether page turners or tales of human connection.  
Watch a movie but make it interesting.  
Our film critic  
link  
compiled a list  
of 30  genuinely  
unprecedented  films. It’s easy to call a movie unique but these actually are, he says.  
Feeling cooped up? Wander the halls of a virtual museum.  
Try a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of  
Art (or something else from our list of  
link  
free cultural activities  
you can do from home).  
Pay attention to the birds outside your window.  
link  
They remind me of what I’m doing, and why,  
an  
ardent bird watcher writes.  
Play our new Sunday crossword.  
link  
It’s bigger than our weekday puzzles and themed  
dot  You can also use a  
new feature to solve with friends.  
Dance alone if you need to.  
Our music critic put together a pop  
link  
playlist  
to help you  
link  
thrive in  
link  
solitude.  
heading  
level 1  
About Us  
This email was written by Isabel Fattal and Annika Neklason. It was edited by Caroline Mimbs Nyce.  
link  
Questions, suggestions, typos?  
Reply directly to this newsletter or write to  
link  
caroline at theatlantic dot com  
anytime.  
Did someone forward you this newsletter?  
link  
Sign yourself up for The Daily here.  
heading  
level 1  
Most Popular on The Atlantic  
list  
with 5 items  
1.  
link  
The Prophecies of Q  
2.  
link  
America’s Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further  
3.  
link  
How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?  
4.  
link  
Social Distancing Is Not Enough  
5.  
link  
The End of Hong Kong  
out of list  
heading  
level 1  
Support independent journalism. Subscribe today.  
link  
products utm source equals newsletter…  
Since 1857, readers have trusted The Atlantic to examine the world with depth and accuracy.  
link  
Become a Subscriber  
Unlabeled graphic  
To get missing image descriptions, open the context menu.  
THE ATLANTIC DAILY NEWSLETTER  
You’re receiving this newsletter because you’ve signed up to receive The Daily.  
link  
See all of our  
link  
newsletters.  
link  
Subscribe to The Atlantic  
  
link  
Get The Atlantic’s i OS app  
link  
graphic  
Facebook Logo  
link  
graphic  
Twitter Logo  
link  
graphic  
Instagram Logo  
link  
graphic  
Youtube Logo  
This email was sent to hello at Smiles Davis dot yeah  
You've signed up to receive newsletters from The Atlantic.  
If you wish to unsubscribe from The  
Atlantic newsletters,  
link  
click here  
dot  
To update your Atlantic Media email preferences,  
link  
click here  
dot  
Atlantic Media   The Watergate   600 New Hampshire Ave NW   Washington, DC 20037