The ANZAC Dedication: For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon

I saw this picture and posting of the poem in a school here in Baltimore. Both had been posted for ANZAC Day, April 25, but seem appropriate for Memorial Day here in the U.S. when we remember the nation's fallen and the service of the men and women of the armed services in general.

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The ANZAC Dedication:
For the Fallen
by Laurence Binyon

They shall not grow 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.
We will remember them.

Thanks Chris.

Im at present reading the service records of a Liverpool man who served in the Australian Army during WW1. So very Apt.

A timeless work Chris. Amazing. I also like the one:

"...there shall be a corner of some foreign field, that is forever England."


Rupert Brooke, I think?

Thanks, Dazza. Yes that quote is Rupert Brooke, his most famous poem:

The Soldier

IF I should die, think only this of me;
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.



Here's one by Thomas Hardy:

Drummer Hodge -

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined - just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew -
Fresh from his Wessex home -
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grown to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spike

Thanks Chris.

Im at present reading the service records of a Liverpool man who served in the Australian Army during WW1. So very Apt.

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Thanks, Spike. I had a feeling this would strike a chord with you.

Chris

Hi again all

In regard to the Thomas Hardy poem written about a soldier killed in the Boer War, it is also notable to mention that although Thomas Hardy and his first wife Emma had no children he had a cousin whom he regarded as his son and heir, named Frank George -- no relative of mine, as far as I know. He was killed in 1915 at Gallipoli which further deepened Hardy's depression over the war.

All the best

Chris

Some amazing poetry came out of the Great War.

I read a poem once called " All for tuppence a day " ( i think? )

was about WW1 soldiers.

Would love to find it again

This Robert Brooke poem allways reminds me of my fathers yougest brother, killed in action during WW2 in "Albania' of all places! and not even allowed to rest! see the attached! Makes me ask: 'Why did they bother???!

Hi Chris,

Thanks for posting the Robert Brooke...very powerful emotions. The mixing of place names - those of home, together with those far from home; the mixing of soils. It makes you question the great price of it all!

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