Remembrance Sunday 2022

~ beetleypete

For the Fallen

Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), published in The Times newspaper on 21 September 1914.

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 condemn.
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.

36 thoughts on “Remembrance Sunday 2022”

        1. I went with a friend who had been in the Grenadier Guards, and both of our grilfriends at the time. (1987) All 4 of us were crying when it was being played. We stayed in Ypres to visit the local cemeteries and battlefields, and then went on to France to look at the cemeteries and monuments there. x

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      1. I can imagine how moving this must have been. The one thing that bothers me with Americans is we have never fought a war on our own soil (except our own Civil War), so we can’t begin to comprehend what it was like for you, and other countries.

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      1. Yes. I am not a worrier, but when he phoned me from Basra one time I knew that things were pretty grim. He couldn’t say much at the time, but the news that came out later was bad. I suppose they were told to phone home so family wouldn’t be worried.

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  9. I wore the beautiful Poppy Pin you gifted to me years ago and thought of my military husband, my military father, and my military grandfather all gone but not ever forgotten. A beautiful post you made here my friend across the pond. It’s snowing today lightly. Pretty soon we will be in the deepest of winter months with little daylight hours but the white of the snow tends to compensate for the lack of sun

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  10. The 4th verse is the standard quote at returned servicemens organisation throughout the world.
    I was guest at ieper for the WW1 centenary. I sat on the same spot that John McCrae wrote his famous poem that was the catalyst for the red poppy symbol and i wrote my own poem and have published a booklet on that. Anyone wanting a copy of my booklet contact Pete. I will email an Ebook version to him & you are free to use the poems.

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