We shall remember them

FILE - A Friday, Nov. 11, 2016 file photo showing a banner with the silhouette of troops and a large red poppy with the words 'Lest We Forget' is held up by a fan prior to the start of the World Cup 2018 Group F qualification soccer match between England and Scotland at Wembley stadium in London. FIFA is set to relax the rules that ban teams from commemorating non-sporting events at soccer matches in response to high-profile disputes with British associations over honoring war dead. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

 

Today is Rememberance Sunday in the United Kingdom where we remember all those who fell defending Britain and its allies. There is really only one form of words that I could use to appropriately remember those who gave their lives to defend our people and our way of life and that is with Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For The Fallen’ written in 1914.

For The Fallen

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.

1 Comment on "We shall remember them"

  1. Philip Copson | November 12, 2017 at 9:10 am |

    Thank you for posting up Laurence Binyon’s poem; it was the first time that I had read it.

    (Though today is called “Remembrance Sunday”…..)

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