Lord Byron - Confederate Monument - Murfreesboro, TN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 50.771 W 086° 23.498
16S E 554937 N 3967058
Strange to see a Lord Byron quote on a Confederate Monument...
Waymark Code: WM11F0X
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 10/11/2019
Views: 4
County of Memorial: Rutherford County
Location of Memorial: 1 Public Square, NE corner of courthouse lawn, Murfreesboro
Monument erected by: the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Ladies Memorial Association
Monument text:
(Front base): In Commemoration of the valor of CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS, who fell in the Great Battle of Murfreesboro, Dec. 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, and in minor engagements in this vicinity, this monument is erected
(Base proper right): "Lest we Forget", 1861 -- 1865
(Base proper left): A Monument for our soldiers - Built of a People's Love
(Base rear): Honor Decks the Turf that Wraps Their Clay
Quote is from stanza XLIL of Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:
XLIL
"There shall they rot -- Ambition's honor'd fools!
Yes, Honor decks the turf that wraps their clay!
Vain Sophistry! in these behold the tools,
The broken tools, that tyrants cast away
By myriads, when they dare to pave their way
With human hearts -- to what? -- a dream alone.
Can despots compass aught that hails their sway?
Or call with truth one span of earth their own,
Save that wherein at last they crumble bone by bone?"
~ The Poetical Works of Lord Byron: Complete in One Volume
[link listed below]