Epic Battlefield 1 poetry reading — For the Fallen

By the time the War broke out, Laurence Binyon was already in his 40s and too old to enlist.

He wrote For the Fallen In September 1914, a few weeks into the First World War, while sitting on a cliff overlooking the sea along the north Cornish coastline.

Binyon said that the four lines of the fourth stanza came to him first — the same four lines immortalised on memorials and tombs around the world.

The four lines which begin, “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old” were adopted by the Royal British Legion as an exhortation for ceremonies of remembrance to commemorate fallen servicemen and women.

Despite being too old to enlist, Binyon volunteered as a hospital orderly, and worked for the Red Cross on the front in 1916.

For The Fallen (1914)

by Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.