For The Fallen: A Poem by Laurence Binyon

A single stanza from this poem by a minor part-time poet has reverberated down the years ever since World War I

As a poet, Laurence Binyon (1869–1943) is remembered today for just one poem, “For the Fallen”, and for only one stanza in the middle of that poem. However, the words of that single stanza are so well known that Binyon’s reputation is assured.

Laurence Binyon was an art historian and an expert on oriental prints who was employed at the British Museum. He had written poetry as a student at Oxford and continued to do so throughout his life. His academic work on Chinese and Japanese art and literature came to influence fellow poets such as Ezra Pound and W B Yeats.

When the First World War broke out in August 1914 the German army was quick to sweep through Belgium and northern France. The British sent an Expeditionary Force to counter this advance, but it suffered heavy initial losses and was forced to retreat. It was in response to these losses that Binyon composed “For the Fallen”. He wrote the poem while sitting on the cliff-top near Padstow in Cornwall, a long way in every respect from the horrors of war, of which, as yet, he had no direct experience.