For the Fallen

By Laurence Binyon

“For the Fallen” is Laurence Binyon’s 1914 elegy for the British soldiers killed in the first weeks of the First World War, published in The Times on September 21, 1914. Its fourth stanza, beginning “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,” is the Ode of Remembrance, recited at Remembrance Day and Anzac Day services in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and across the Commonwealth.

Our reading: the poem millions know is only a quarter of it. Taken out of its patriotic frame, the fourth stanza became a promise that belongs to every nation that has lost its young, and Binyon, only seven weeks into the war, found words that fit its end.

ON THIS PAGE
Summary · The Poem · Background · Analysis and Themes · Form and Technique · Notable Lines · Themes · FAQ
Glossary · In Popular Culture · Related Poems

Summary

England mourns her soldiers killed overseas, the poem begins, like a mother proud of her children even as she grieves. Drums sound, and there is music and glory even in the midst of loss. The young men went to battle singing, strong and bright-eyed, and they died facing the enemy.

In the fourth stanza, the poem makes its famous promise: the dead will never grow old as the living do, and every evening and morning, “We will remember them.” The last three stanzas describe their absence from the tables and work of home, and then their presence in the heart of their country, where they shine like the stars, which will still be bright when the living are dust.

The Poem

Binyon’s poem is given here in full, following the text in A Treasury of War Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 1917), which matches its first printing in The Times; the fourth stanza is the Ode of Remembrance.

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.

Background

Laurence Binyon (1869–1943) was an English poet and a scholar of Asian art, who worked for most of his life in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. He wrote “For the Fallen” in mid-September 1914, sitting on the cliffs between Pentire Point and The Rumps in north Cornwall, where a plaque placed in 2001 now marks the spot. The war was less than seven weeks old, but the British Expeditionary Force had already suffered heavy losses in the retreat from Mons and at the Battle of the Marne. The Times printed the poem on September 21, 1914, and it was collected later that year in The Winnowing Fan: Poems on the Great War.

According to Binyon, the fourth stanza came to him first. In his mid-forties, he was too old to enlist, but in 1915 he volunteered as an orderly at a British hospital for French soldiers, and he later visited the Western Front. His biographer John Hatcher observed that the poem, “in its gravitas, its tenderness, and depth of grief,” looks as if it should have appeared in 1918 rather than 1914.

After the war, the third and fourth stanzas, and later the fourth alone, were adopted as the Ode of Remembrance. It is recited at Remembrance Day services in Britain and Canada, where the Royal Canadian Legion calls it the Act of Remembrance, and at Anzac Day dawn services in Australia and New Zealand, where the audience answers “We will remember them,” and in Australia adds “Lest we forget.” At the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, it is read every evening after the Last Post.

Analysis and Themes

“For the Fallen” moves in three stages: patriotic mourning, the promise of remembrance, and a vision of the dead among the stars. Three things repay attention: the patriotism of the opening, the timeless fourth stanza, and the consolation of the ending.

A Nation in Mourning

The first three stanzas speak in the language of 1914. England is a mother, proud even in grief; the dead are “Flesh of her flesh” who fell “in the cause of the free.” Death itself is “august and royal,” and there is “a glory that shines upon our tears.” The soldiers “went with songs to the battle,” and they “fell with their faces to the foe,” an old phrase for a brave death.

This is the patriotic vision that later war poets, above all Wilfred Owen, would reject. But Binyon’s patriotism is quieter than it first sounds. It begins not with victory but with mourning, and the “glory” it finds is not in the fighting but in the grief itself. Even in September 1914, the poem is an elegy before it is a call to arms.

“They Shall Grow Not Old”

The fourth stanza changes the poem’s voice. It drops England, the drums, and the foe, and speaks simply of “them” and “we.” Its central idea is a paradox: the dead are spared the one thing the living cannot escape, which is growing old. “Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn” echoes, probably without Binyon meaning it to, Shakespeare’s praise of Cleopatra, whom “Age cannot wither.” What was a compliment to a queen becomes a bitter comfort for the young dead.

The stanza’s last two lines turn that paradox into a promise. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning” gives remembrance the rhythm of a day, a vow renewed at every dusk and dawn, and the short final line, “We will remember them,” is as plain as an oath. Because the stanza names no country and no enemy, it could be adopted by every nation that lost its soldiers, and it has been.

The Dead as Stars

The fifth stanza measures the absence of the dead in ordinary things: they no longer laugh with their comrades, sit at “familiar tables of home,” or share “our labour of the day-time.” It is the most personal passage in the poem, the empty chair rather than the flag.

The last two stanzas answer that loss with the stars. The dead are known to their country’s heart “As the stars are known to the Night,” and like the stars, they will still shine “when we are dust.” The repeated “As the stars” builds like a hymn, and the final line, “To the end, to the end, they remain,” reverses the fourth stanza. The living will grow old and die, but the dead will stay.

Form and Technique

The poem has 28 lines in seven quatrains. It has no regular meter. Its long, loose lines carry four to six stresses, “they SHALL grow not OLD, as WE that are LEFT grow OLD,” and each stanza usually ends on a shorter line, which gives the poem the slow, measured pace of a procession. The rhyme falls mainly on the second and fourth lines of each stanza, as in “condemn” and “them,” and it is often softened or left out, so that the poem sounds more like solemn speech than song.

Binyon relies instead on repetition and parallel structure. “They mingle not . . . They sit no more . . . They have no lot . . . They sleep” lists the absences of the dead line by line, and “As the stars . . . As the stars” lifts the ending. The shortest line in the poem, “We will remember them,” is the one everybody knows: after the long lines before it, its three stresses land with the weight of a vow, which is why it works so well spoken aloud by a crowd.

Notable Lines

Three passages carry the poem from proud mourning to remembrance to eternity.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Lines 1 to 2

The opening image. England is a grieving mother, and pride and sorrow are held together from the first word.

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.

Lines 13 to 16

The Ode of Remembrance. The dead are spared old age, and the living promise to remember them at every sunset and sunrise.

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Lines 27 to 28

The ending. The dead shine brightest in “the time of our darkness,” a phrase that has comforted mourners in every war since.

Themes

Four ideas shape the poem, all of them about how the living keep faith with the dead.

Remembrance. The poem’s central promise is that the dead will be remembered every day, at dusk and dawn.

Youth and sacrifice. The soldiers are young, strong, and brave, and their deaths are presented as a gift to the nation.

The paradox of time. The dead escape the aging that wears down the living, so their youth is preserved forever.

Consolation. Grief is answered with the image of the stars, lasting and bright in the darkest time.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions readers most often ask about Binyon’s poem and the Ode of Remembrance.

What Is the Ode of Remembrance?

It is the fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon’s “For the Fallen,” beginning “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.” It is recited at Remembrance Day and Anzac Day services, and the audience responds, “We will remember them.”

Who Wrote “For the Fallen”?

Laurence Binyon, an English poet who worked at the British Museum, wrote it in September 1914. He was 45 at the time and too old to serve as a soldier.

When Was “For the Fallen” Written?

Binyon wrote it in mid-September 1914, less than seven weeks after Britain entered the First World War, on the cliffs of north Cornwall. The Times published it on September 21, 1914.

Is It “They Shall Grow Not Old” or “They Shall Not Grow Old”?

Binyon wrote “They shall grow not old.” The version “They shall not grow old” is a common misquotation, used, for example, as the title of Peter Jackson’s 2018 documentary.

Is It “Nor the Years Condemn” or “Contemn”?

The correct word is “condemn.” It appears in the first printing in The Times and in Binyon’s own collection, and he never changed it, although some readers have argued he meant “contemn,” meaning to scorn.

Glossary

These words help unlock the poem’s solemn language.

• august (line 5): Majestic and worthy of respect.
• immortal spheres (line 6): The heavens, from the old belief that the stars moved on crystal spheres.
• desolation (line 7): Great emptiness and grief.
• staunch (line 11): Loyal and steadfast.
• condemn (line 14): Here, pass judgment on, or wear down with a verdict of age.
• lot (line 19): Share or part.
• England’s foam (line 20): The seas around England; the dead lie buried overseas.
• marches (line 26): Orderly processions, like soldiers marching in ranks.

In Popular Culture

Beyond the ceremonies where it is spoken every year, the poem has been set to music and borrowed by film and television.

The Spirit of England (1917): Edward Elgar set “For the Fallen” as the third and final part of his choral work for soloist, chorus, and orchestra.

Doctor Who (2007): The episode “The Family of Blood” ends at a Remembrance Day service where the Ode is recited.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018): Peter Jackson’s documentary about British soldiers on the Western Front takes its title from the fourth stanza, in the common misquoted form.

Related Poems

These poems are read beside Binyon’s at acts of remembrance, or answer it.

• In Flanders Fields by John McCrae: The other great poem of remembrance, spoken by the dead themselves and the source of the poppy.
• The Soldier by Rupert Brooke: Another patriotic poem of 1914, imagining a soldier’s grave as a corner of England.
• Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen: A 1917 sonnet that asks what funeral rites are left for soldiers who “die as cattle.”
• Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen: The soldier-poet’s furious reply to the idea that dying for your country is glorious.
• Remember by Christina Rossetti: A sonnet about how the dead wish to be remembered, often read at memorial services.