A Shrine in the Pantheon

Henry Van Dyke

FOR THE UNNAMED SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN FRANCE

Universal approval has been accorded the proposal made in the
French Chamber that the ashes of an unnamed French soldier,
fallen for his country, shall be removed with solemn ceremony to
the Pantheon. In this way it is intended to honor by a symbolic
ceremony the memory of all who lie in unmarked graves.


Here the great heart of France,
  Victor in noble strife,
Doth consecrate a Poilu's tomb
  To those who saved her life!

Brave son without a name,
  Your country calls you home,
To rest among her heirs of fame,
  Beneath the Pantheon's dome!

Now from the height of Heaven,
  The souls of heroes look;
Their names, ungraven on this stone,
  Are written in God's book.

Women of France, who mourn
  Your dead in unmarked ground,
Come hither! Here the man you loved
  In the heart of France is found!

The unknown soldier of France was to be buried in the Pantheon. He was eventually interred beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

'Poilu' was the nickname for a French soldier.