The Full Text of “For the Fallen”
1With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
2England mourns for her dead across the sea.
3Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
4Fallen in the cause of the free.
5Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
6Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
7There is music in the midst of desolation
8And a glory that shines upon our tears.
9They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
10Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
11They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
12They fell with their faces to the foe.
13They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
14Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
15At the going down of the sun and in the morning
16We will remember them.
17They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
18They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
19They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
20They sleep beyond England's foam.
21But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
22Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
23To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
24As the stars are known to the Night;
25As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
26Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
27As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
28To the end, to the end, they remain.
The Full Text of “For the Fallen”
1With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
2England mourns for her dead across the sea.
3Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
4Fallen in the cause of the free.
5Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
6Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
7There is music in the midst of desolation
8And a glory that shines upon our tears.
9They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
10Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
11They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
12They fell with their faces to the foe.
13They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
14Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
15At the going down of the sun and in the morning
16We will remember them.
17They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
18They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
19They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
20They sleep beyond England's foam.
21But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
22Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
23To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
24As the stars are known to the Night;
25As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
26Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
27As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
28To the end, to the end, they remain.
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“For the Fallen” Introduction
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"For the Fallen" is an elegy written by English poet and playwright Laurence Binyon in 1914—shortly after the outbreak of World War I. First printed in the British newspaper The Times, the deeply patriotic poem mourns, honors, and celebrates the soldiers who died fighting for England in the war. To this day, "For the Fallen" is often recited at WWI memorial services and appears on monuments commemorating the fighting. The poem has a somber, steady rhythm appropriate to the solemnity of an elegy.
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“For the Fallen” Summary
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England, personified as a mother to her citizens, proudly gives grateful thanks to and grieves over the British soldiers—England's metaphorical children—who have died in Europe during WWI. The soldiers were part of England's own body and part of her soul as well. Now, the soldiers have died while fighting for freedom.
The drums, perhaps of a funeral procession or march for the soldiers, beat ceremoniously. Death itself, personified as nobility, also pays respects to these soldiers by mourning them. Death's mournful song reaches even the planets in the sky above. Thus, despite England's collective misery over the death of the soldiers, there still exists beautiful music and song. The honor that the soldiers achieved through their sacrifice brings a radiance upon the tears that the rest of England sheds for them.
The soldiers sang as they went into battle with the enemy. The soldiers were youthful. Their arms and legs were steady add unfaltering as they walked into battle. Their eyes remained sharp and focused. Every part of the soldiers appeared firm and radiant. The soldiers were loyal and committed until their deaths, despite knowing the chances of them living were slim. Indeed, as the soldiers died, they bravely faced their enemies.
The soldiers will never grow old like the rest of England. The soldiers will not be worn down by the aging process or passing time. As each day ends and begins again, the rest of England will forever remember the dead soldiers.
The soldiers will never get together with their happy friends. The soldiers will never sit around tables in their own homes. They will never work during the day as the living do. Indeed, the dead soldiers are put to rest beyond the ocean boundaries that surround England.
Yet, despite all this, the soldiers will always remain in the place where English citizens' innermost longing and deepest hopes reside. The soldiers will feel like an unseen, but never-ending source of inspiration and nobility within each citizen. In this way, the soldiers will exist in the hearts of the English people, like the stars exist in the night sky.
The soldiers will continue to exist like the stars that shine long after the rest of England is dead, and which move steadily across the heavens up above. And just like the stars that remain bright and everlasting in physical and emotional darkness, the dead soldiers will continue to exist and shine until the very end of time.
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“For the Fallen” Themes
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Patriotism and Sacrifice
“For the Fallen” memorializes British soldiers who died in battle during WWI. The poem acknowledges the profound loss of the soldiers’ lives while also emphasizing the nobility of their sacrifice. Dying for one’s country and the ideals of freedom, the poem implies, is the ultimate act of patriotism.
England is in the poem personified as a “mother” figure mourning the death of “her children”—British soldiers who died in WWI. The relationship between England and the soldiers is thus presented as an intimate, familial bond, an idea that in turn emphasizes the profound emotional loss the soldiers’ deaths represent to the country as well as the importance of remembering these men.
Moreover, these soldiers are not just England’s “children”; they are “Flesh of her flesh.” The loss of the soldiers, therefore, is a loss of part of England itself—an idea that again emphasizes the immense pain of the soldiers’ sacrifice, which is so great as to feel like a physical wound. The soldiers are also described as the “spirit of [England’s] spirit.” The soldiers are thus not just a part of England’s body, but also of her soul. These lines speak to a unified national identity being protected by the soldiers. Altogether, this language is the poem’s way of respecting the gravity of the soldiers’ loss and implicitly justifying their deaths by making the human beings inextricable from the cause and country they fought for.
Indeed, the poem argues that these soldiers didn’t die in vain because they sacrificed their lives for the noble cause of protecting England and its freedoms. The soldiers’ deaths are thus “august and royal.” The adjective “august” describes an individual who is dignified and eminent and typically is used to describe royalty or nobility. The implication is that the nobility of the soldiers’ cause lends nobility to their deaths, raising them to the level of royalty.
Adding to this idea, the speaker insists that the soldiers were “staunch to the end against odds uncounted,” meaning they remained brave and unafraid to the very end. The implication is that the soldiers’ belief in their cause—in protecting their home country and the ideals of freedom—was powerful enough to stave away fear of death. This is another image meant to hammer home the noble and principled nature of the soldiers’ patriotic sacrifice, and, as such, the importance of honoring them.
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Immortality and Remembrance
“For the Fallen” is an elegy for the British soldiers who died during in WWI. On one level, the poem takes care to highlight the patriotism that fueled the soldiers' sacrifice, arguing that they gave their lives in the name of protecting their beloved homeland and England's ideals of freedom. But the poem not only justifies the soldiers’ deaths in the name of patriotism; it also suggests that their sacrifice essentially makes them immortal in the eyes of history. That is, because the soldiers gave their lives to protect England, they will live on in England's memory.
The poem makes clear that the soldiers’ deaths have not been in vain, but rather were necessary in order to protect their country and cause. The soldiers are “Fallen in the cause of the free”; they have sacrificed themselves not for any selfish reason, but for a deeply noble one. The nobility of this sacrifice, in turn, forever brands them in England's cultural consciousness.
The speaker further declares that the soldiers “shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,” and that England “will remember them” in the full of their youth at the time of death. This adds yet more tragedy to their loss, while also, somewhat ironically suggesting that the soldiers’ premature deaths has allowed them to remain forever young in the country’s memory. Of course, the poem also relays how these soldiers will never get to see their families again, and will never return to the world they gave their lives to defend.
The poem insists, however, that this does not mean these soldiers will be forgotten. Instead, they live on in the deepest "desires" and "hopes" of British citizens, their sacrifice securing them a place of honor in "the innermost heart of their own land." The speaker also compares the soldiers to the “stars that shall be bright when we are dust,” an allusion to the idea that people return to “dust” upon death. Just as stars will outlast human life, so too will the glory and nobility of the soldiers’ sacrifice transcend human memory itself.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “For the Fallen”
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Lines 1-4
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.The first two lines of "For the Fallen" establish the emotional stakes of the poem. England, personified as a "proud" and grateful "mother" figure, mourns dead British soldiers—treated in this metaphor as the country's children. By establishing a familial relationship between the dead and England, the poem emphasizes the grief that England feels at their deaths. Additionally, the British citizens have died "across the sea" and not on English land. Therefore, England's inability to recover the bodies of "her children" compounds her grief.
Furthermore, the dead are not simply children; rather, as described in line 3, they are “Flesh of her flesh.” In losing the soldiers, or "her flesh," England herself suffers a physical wound. Additionally, the phrase “flesh of her flesh” is a Biblical allusion to God’s creation of Eve out of Adam’s rib. The allusion stresses that dead are as important to England as Eve was to Adam. In the same vein, the second half of line 3 describes the dead as “spirit of [England’s] spirit.” The dead are not just a part of England’s body, then, but also a part of her soul. Consequently, the loss of the British citizens is an emotional, physical, and also existential wound. The caesura in the middle of line 3, in the form of a comma, slows down the reading of the line, stressing the importance and solemnity of these two declarations.
Also note how, in the first four lines, the dead are described in relation to England as "her children," "her dead," "her flesh," and "her spirit." The repetition of the possessive "her" highlights the intimate relationship between England and the dead, never letting the reader forget that these fallen soldiers are part of the nation they fought for.
Line 4 then provides more details into the identities of those who have died. The ones who England mourns for so deeply are not just any British citizens. Rather, they are those who have "Fallen in the cause of the free." In other words, the dead are British soldiers who have died fighting for their country in another land. The poem thus takes a patriotic view of war and argues for the nobility and necessity of sacrifice in the name of England's ideals.
"For the Fallen" is, ultimately, an elegy for dead British soldiers. As is fitting for an elegy, there is a ceremonial regularity to the form. The poem is composed of seven quatrains, or four-line stanzas. Within each quatrain, the first three lines are of similar syllabic length, while the fourth line is shorter. Additionally, the majority of the lines are end-stopped, slowing down the reading of the lines and providing a stately rhythm to the poem.
Binyon is more unconventional, however, in terms of meter. Although there are moments of conventional meter, Binyon often plays against these meters from line to line and in unconventional ways. Take, for example, line 2:
England | mourns for | her dead | across | the sea.
The line begins with two trochees (DUM-da) but soon shifts to iambic meter (da-DUM). Similarly, line 4 also starts out with trochaic meter:
Fallen | in the | cause of | the free.
Trochaic, or falling, meter is often used to address somber and grim subjects, like the death of patriotic soldiers. By using both trochaic and iambic meter, however, the poem suggests a complication of that mournful mood. Indeed, although the first stanza establishes England's deep grief, the first stanza also hints at England's "pr[ide]," a more positive emotion, at the soldiers' sacrifice.
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Lines 5-8
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. -
Lines 9-12
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. -
Lines 13-16
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 17-20
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. -
Lines 21-24
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; -
Lines 25-28
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.
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“For the Fallen” Symbols
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Stars
Stars are celestial bodies that appear brightly-illuminated in the sky at night. Stars can live for billions of years. As such, they appear eternal and immortal in relation to humans. In "For the Fallen," the dead British soldiers are compared to stars, symbolically taking on the stars' radiant, celestial, and immortal qualities.
In the sixth stanza, the speaker states that the dead soldiers will be known to the rest of England "[a]s the stars are known to the Night." The presence of stars is ubiquitous to the night. Therefore, the speaker implies, the dead soldiers will be intimately and eternally remembered by the rest of the England; they will always be "known."
Moreover, in line 25, stars shine "bright[ly]" long after humans turn to "dust" or die. Therefore, although the soldiers have died in battle, they remain immortal through the rest of England's act of remembrance. The speaker also notes that the stars "march[] upon the heavenly plain." The act of "march[ing]" is a martial act, and one that the soldiers certainly performed in battle. The speaker implies that just as the stars move across the heavens, the dead soldiers have their place in the heavens as well due to their patriotic sacrifice.
In the final two lines of the poem, the speaker once again points to the stars' brightness during "the time of [their] darkness." Darkness, the speaker seems to suggest, is not just a physical state of darkness, but an emotional one. After all, "For the Fallen" was written in the first few months of WWI, a war that would drag on for many years and cause previously unimaginable suffering and death. The speaker believes, however, that the dead soldiers will serve as a source of "light," or inspiration, in the midst of this emotional darkness.
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“For the Fallen” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Personification
Personification occurs three times in "For the Fallen"—in stanza's 1, 2, and 7. In each case, Binyon uses personification in order to emphasize the depth of emotions felt for the soldiers within the poem.
In the first stanza, for example, Binyon personifies England as a "proud" "mother" to the soldiers who are "her children." Maternal love is often considered one of the most powerful and tender emotions. Therefore, through personification, Binyon uses the relationship between mother and children to highlight the intimacy between England and the soldiers. This in turn emphasizes the grief that England, a mother, feels at the soldiers' deaths. Moreover, England, as a mother, is not even able to recover the bodies of her children who have died "across the sea." All of these details of the relationship between England and the soldiers enhance the sorrow in the beginning of the poem.
In line 5, Death is personified as an "august and royal" figure who pays respects to the dead soldiers by singing a song. The adjectives "august" and "royal" depict figures of nobility, such as kings and queens. Therefore, Death is not presented as a terrifying monster, but as nobility. The fact that nobility and, moreover, Death itself, would pay honor the soldiers in death suggests the nobility of the soldiers themselves. The personification, therefore, elevates the status of the soldiers, intensifying the speaker's grief and reverence for them.
In the final stanza, the speaker uses a simile to compare the soldiers to stars. In line 26, the stars "[m]ov[e] in marches upon the heavenly plain." To "march" is to move in a regular, militaristic rhythm. Additionally, battles are often fought on "plain[s]," or flat landmasses. Consequently, the stars are personified as moving across the "heavenly plain," or night sky, like soldiers. The personification of stars as soldiers further emphasizes the similarities between the stars and soldiers. Not only are the dead soldiers as radiant, noble, inspiring, heavenly, and immortal as the stars, but the stars themselves are inherently similar to the noble soldiers too.
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Repetition
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Caesura
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Assonance
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Parataxis
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Enjambment
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Simile
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Allusion
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"For the Fallen" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Thanksgiving
- August
- Spheres
- Desolation
- Limb
- Staunch
- Foe
- Weary
- Condemn
- Labour
- Foam
- Well-spring
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An expression of thanks or gratitude. England, personified as a mother, gives thanks and expresses gratitude for the British soldiers that have died in WWII.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “For the Fallen”
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Form
"For the Fallen" is an elegy, a form that mourns the dead and is often written in a serious and solemn tone. Specifically, "For the Fallen" grieves English soldiers who have died fighting abroad for their country and the cause of freedom. As is traditional with elegies, the poem ends on a somewhat hopeful and inspiring note. In the final stanzas of the poem, the speaker is consoled by the thought of the soldiers' glory and deification after death.
The poem is composed of seven quatrains, or four-line stanzas, for a total of 28 lines. It has a steady ABCB rhyme scheme as well in every quatrain. The regularity of form throughout "For the Fallen" emphasizes the ceremonial and measured tone of the poem. This is a serious endeavor, the speaker implies, and not the time for unexpected poetic flourishes; instead, the poem comes across as tightly and controlled and respectfully restrained.
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Meter
"For the Fallen" is an elegy written for British soldiers who died fighting for their country. Elegiac stanzas are traditionally composed in iambic pentameter, a meter with five poetic feet with an unstressed-stressed rhythm per line. While there are some moments of iambic pentameter (or close to it) in this poem, the meter is too irregular to be defined as such.
Line 9, for example, has the five stressed beats of a line of iambic pentameter, but there is an anapest (da-da-DUM) in the third foot:
They went | with songs | to the bat- | tle, they | were young,
The line starts out as a steady march, reflecting the soldiers' determination, before the anapestic hiccup of "to the bat-"; this feels like a small trip in the line, perhaps subtly reflecting the soldiers' youth and inexperience despite their bravery.
Other lines are based on falling meter, in which stressed syllables give way to unstressed syllables and create a sensation of, well, falling, of downward motion. Take line 6, which is made up of trochees (DUM-da) and essentially creates a feeling opposite to that rising meter of line 9 above:
There is | music | in the | midst of | deso- | lation
This falling meter feels appropriately somber. Again, though, the meter does not adhere to a strict pattern overall. This keeps the poem feeling more conversational, and allows for a natural flow of emphasis and emotion throughout. While the tone is serious and reflective, it is not stilted or overly formulaic; instead, it lets the speaker express grief and pride as these emotions arise.
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Rhyme Scheme
"For the Fallen" is composed of seven quatrains, each of which follows the same rhyme scheme of:
ABCB
For example, in the first stanza lines 1 and 3 do not rhyme—"children" and "spirit"—but lines 2 and 4 clearly do: "sea" and "free."
Throughout the lines, the rhyme sounds are full and clear. There are no slant rhymes or half rhymes, and instead the poem's satisfying rhyme sounds project an air of confidence and control. Indeed, the steady rhyme scheme provides a sense of structure and order that suits the solemn, measured tone of the poem. Although the first three lines of the stanza do not appear to have any rhyme scheme, the last line reveals the underlying rhyme scheme that structures the stanza. There is a sense of tension and anticipation followed by a feeling of closure as the final line of each stanza completes the rhyme scheme.
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“For the Fallen” Speaker
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The speaker of "For the Fallen" is English, but otherwise nameless and genderless. Indeed, as evidenced through the use of "our" and "we," the speaker is not one particular individual, but rather a group of people. The speaker can be thought of as speaking on behalf of all those English citizens who remain alive to mourn the soldiers who have died fighting for their country. The use of nonspecific communal pronouns allows the poem to feel intimate and universal at once; readers are invited into the poem, and those readers could be just about anybody.
In the beginning of the poem, the speaker deeply mourns the death of the British soldiers. The speaker envisions the soldiers as the "children" of England, personified as a mother figure. In doing so, the speaker conveys the profound emotional pain that England as a whole experiences. Although the soldiers who died may have not been personally known to all of England, everyone—including the speaker—feels their loss like the loss of a loved one. The speaker, and consequently the rest of England, resolves to memorialize the soldiers through the act of remembrance. The dead soldiers, the speaker makes clear, will serve as a source of inspiration and hope through whatever "darkness," or pain, the speaker and the rest of England experiences in the midst of war.
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“For the Fallen” Setting
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Broadly speaking, the setting of "For the Fallen" is set in England. It was written in 1914 to honor British soldiers fallen while fighting in World War I. That said, there are not many references to a specific time period; all that is clear is that these soldiers died defending the ideal of "freedom."
The poem also transports the reader, at times, into the "immortal spheres" of the planets and stars in the "heavenly plain" above. The transportation to a more celestial setting reflects the heavenly and immortal qualities of the dead soldiers to whom the poem pays reverence.
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Literary and Historical Context of “For the Fallen”
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Literary Context
Binyon first published "For the Fallen" in the British daily newspaper The Times in September 1914. This was just two months after Britain's entry into WWI. A month earlier, Binyon had published his poems "The Fourth of August" and "To Women" in the same newspaper. All three poems focus on the righteousness of Britain's involvement in WWI, the nobility of the soldiers and their willingness to sacrifice their lives for freedom, and the sorrow and pride British civilians feel for the soldiers. All three poems also touch on maternal love or the maternal relationship between England and the soldiers. Stylistically, all three poems are composed of quatrains and maintain a stately, measured rhythm throughout that reflects the solemnity of war.
Many of Binyon's contemporaries also addressed the war during this time in their work. Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, and Robert Graves, for example, all wrote poems focusing on WWI. Literary responses to the war, however, ranged from disillusioned anger to idealized patriotism. Brooke's "The Soldier," for example, reflects a similar idealized vision of war as Binyon's "For the Fallen." In contrast, much of Owen's work depicts a stark, decidedly antiwar vision; see "Anthem for Doomed Youth" for a striking contrast with Binyon's poe.
Over time, "For the Fallen" gained in popularity and importance for honoring not just British soldiers in WWI, but soldiers who have died in any conflict fighting honorably for their country. Indeed, the fourth stanza of the poem is commonly referred to as the "Ode of Remembrance" and considered as a standalone poem in its own right. This "Ode of Remembrance" is performed during Remembrance Day and other war memorial events as a way to honor the dead.
Historical Context
Great Britain entered WWI on August 4, 1914. A few days later, on August 23, the British army engaged in and suffered a defeat at the Battle of Mons, Britain's first major battle against Germany. "For the Fallen," first published in September 1914, was likely a response to the Battle of Mons and the subsequent deaths of British soldiers abroad in Europe.
Many in England supported Britain's involvement in the war, viewing the war as being fought for the name of freedom and righteousness against German aggression. Binyon, too, was a supporter of Britain's involvement and viewed war in a patriotic and noble light. WWI would last for the next four years, until 1918, and eventually cause the deaths of around 700,000 British soldiers. As the war dragged on and the number of fatalities increased, "For the Fallen" gained increasing popularity and importance as an elegy that honored the dead.
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More “For the Fallen” Resources
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External Resources
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Context and Inspiration — Watch a short video on the historical context and inspiration for Binyon's poem.
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Choral Adaptation — Listen to a choral adaptation of the poem.
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"For the Fallen" Music Video — Watch a music video adaptation of the entire poem.
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The Festival of Remembrance — Watch a performance of "For the Fallen" at the Festival of Remembrance.
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The Original Manuscript — Examine the original manuscript of the entire poem.
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"For the Fallen" Read Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.
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