1. Katia Scarpignato

2. Laurence Binyon
Born Robert Laurence Binyon(1869-1943)
was an English poet, dramatist and art
scholar. His most famous work, For the
Fallen, is well known for being used in
Remembrance Sunday services.
For The Fallen was first published in the
Times on September 21 1914. Laurence
Binyon wrote it while working at the
British Museum, and did not go to the
western front until 1916, as a Red Cross
orderly.
The poem's fourth verse is now used all
over the world during services of
remembrance, and is inscribed on
countless war monuments.

3. Context
‘For the fallen’ is one of the most famous and
enduring war poems, and it was written at an historic
moment just after the retreat from Mons and the
victory of the Marne.
As to how it came to be written, Laurence Binyon,
who celebrated his 70th anniversary on 10 August
1939, says: "I can't recall the exact date beyond that it
was shortly after the retreat. I was set down, out of
doors, on a cliff in, Cornwall. The stanza "They Shall
Grow Not Old" was written first and dictated the
rhythmical movement of the whole poem."

4. Initial Impression
 The theme that is gradually exposed is that of an ironic yet solemn nature.
The painful, bloody demise of soldiers is commonly depicted as an
unfortunate situation drastically cutting the lives of these men short. In
contrast, Binyon depicts the lives of these young soldiers as eternal and
that while the mortality of humanity disallows others of escaping death,
these deceased will have their lives lengthened to eternity, for as long as
they are remembered.
 Binyon’s theme is imparted to the reader with his organized structure that
allows smooth flow and transition throughout the poem. His 7 quatrains
share the same rhyme scheme of “ABCB” allowing a smooth and
comfortable reading of the poem that is appealing to the ear. His frequent
pauses are expressed using punctuation and encourage gradualism to
emphasise certain ideas such as the losses experienced in lines 17-20.
 The title ‘for the Fallen’ suggest soldiers fighting in France, perhaps
falling physically because they were brutally killed or fallen from the
grace of God and of their humanity. Ambiguous whether is it
commemorating solely the British or the German Soldiers as well.

5. The sacrifice of
soldiers to fight
for their nation.
Stanza A soldiers mother,
proud that her son is
fulfilling his duty.
England and
mothers give 1 Mother could also
signify England, she is
thanks to their sending out her
children soldiers or ‘sons’ to
Personifying
fight for freedom
England, the With proud thanksgiving, a mother
nation of these against the enemy
for her children,
men,
emphasises the England mourns for her dead across generally
grief presenting the sea. Romanising
a very personal Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of War
and painful her spirit,
reaction to the
death: “flesh of Fallen in the cause of the free.
her flesh” “spirit
of her spirit”.
Nevertheless despite the
Imagery of soldiers lined
suffering it regards the losses
up going over the top,
united in spirit and flesh. as a necessary and
English blood fighting for purposeful sacrifice as it
King and country, acted as states the reason “cause of
one the free”.

6. Mourning the losses. Use of the words
thrill and royal possibly describes the The midst of glory the
natural human love of all things music and the pride
majestic. This verse conjures images of
parents, wives and lovers crying out to
the skies on news of their loved ones'
Stanza 2 act as camaraderie
perhaps to illustrate
the home front was
death . There is a strong sense of pride blissfully unaware of
that they lost them for a powerful the devastation
cause.
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.
The music perhaps acting as a
blanket or a shield to drown The tears act as a
out the utter savagery of mans consequence the of glory
inhumanity to man and pride shield the
mechanised, vast-scale
carnage of 20th century
warfare

7. Youthful, a lust for
life. The comma
The soldiers blazing with
Stanza 3
allows reflection
pride, true to England
amongst the
and their beliefs. As time
melancholy
progressed that soon
The speaker statement. That the
diminished, as faith for
dramatizes the youth lost their
England and inhumanity
sadness of the humanity and their
became blurred
zest for life to fight
mourners, elevating
for king and country.
its meaning as he
declaims: 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;
Staunch They fell with their faces to the foe.
(committed)
to England,
their home,
their Reaching This conjures up images of
mothers out to the A bleak conclusion, their proud upright youths and
exposed commitment consequently made the men in new uniforms,
and injured soldiers fall to their enemy. Their marching and showing
humanity was destroyed as War had strength to the end as they
a lasting impact both physically and fought on regardless.
mentally

8. (This stanza was written first
The acknowledgement of and is recited at
nature’s sacrifice of the remembrance Sunday)
dead, the sun brings a new
day- the cycle of nature
continuing, but as a new
Stanza 4
day begins and life is born,
we will remember the past
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.
It is easy to see why that fourth stanza, alone,
should have been rescued from oblivion. It
constitutes the turning-point, the moment when
the poem's argument for consolation emerges: For formal reasons as well, that
fourth stanza is especially effective.
the dead enjoy an eternal youth, immortalised in Its foreshortened final line, 'We will
the memory of the living and in other more remember them', states without
permanent ways. They are ‘as the stars that shall embellishment. It expresses a
be bright when we are dust'. Their profound recognition which would
everlastingness exists outside memory, in a form only be cheapened by rhetorical
of stultification which harks back to a common flourish..
motif in Greek myth.

9. The syntax of ‘not’
after ‘mingle’ A timeless portrait of men
Stanza 5
perhaps Binyon is struggling to retain their
emphasising the fact humanity in an inhuman conflict.
that soldiers will ‘not’ Humour escapes soldiers after
and will ‘never’ do the magnitude of death they
again witnessed.
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.
‘Familiar’ is what the soldiers knew before
Binyon’s choice of diction the War, but evidently the War disallowed
represents poignant solemnise. the continuity of familiarity. In the sense that
The young men will not be soldiers knew nothing more than their trigger
coming home or contributing to finger. Killing was what they knew best, and
the future of the land that sent similar to strange meeting, the trenches was
their home and their comrades was their
them to war.
family, because the home front were
blissfully unaware of the cataclysm taking
place. They would never fully comprehend
the unnatural violence that soldiers

10. Despite the fact that the young Stanza 6
soldiers will not return
physically, they live in the hearts
of their profoundly grateful
countrymen
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;
The comparison of a soldiers death and Binyon’s
It is though Binyon
references to eternity and stars again connotes already understood their
that soldiers will live on forever. grave importance of their
sacrifice to the world,
and the inhumanity
surrounding the War
though when he wrote
this poem the war had
only just began

11. The final stanza celebrates the young
soldiers and glorifies further their The dust, and ashes
mission with an extended comparison are all that would
Stanza 7 to “the stars”
Yet the soldiers’
souls, of course,
remain of us, but the
soldiers who fought,
Optimistic conclusion to the will live eternally their soul or their star
poem, their consolation for their in God, even if the will shine on for
sacrifice is that their bravery will stars cease to
never be forgotten eternity
shine.
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.
In times of sorrow,
we must remember
‘They remain’, that our sadness will
The repetition of ‘to the end’ signifies though not physically be overshadowed by
that despite their young deaths they will with us, but their the magnitude of
distress that the
live for eternity, though they died young, sacrifice will always soldiers faced
it is the young that will live on forever be remembered
referring to the lost
souls of the dead