With the tears a Land hath shed Their graves should ever be green.

Aldrich’s couplet links collective mourning (“the tears a Land hath shed”) to an ethical duty of remembrance. The “green” graves suggest both literal upkeep—tended burial places, memorial plantings—and a figurative insistence that memory remain living rather than fading into neglect. By making the nation’s grief the measure of its obligation, the lines imply that sacrifice creates a permanent claim on public conscience: those who died (likely in war or public service) should be honored not only at moments of ceremony but through enduring care and gratitude. The archaic diction (“hath”) heightens the tone of solemn, almost liturgical commemoration.