<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">For the Fallen</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">With</span> proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,</p><p class="line">England mourns for her dead across the sea.</p><p class="line">Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,</p><p class="line">Fallen in the cause of the free.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal</p><p class="line">Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,</p><p class="line">There is music in the midst of desolation</p><p class="line">And a glory that shines upon our tears.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They went with songs to the battle, they were young,</p><p class="line">Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.</p><p class="line">They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;</p><p class="line">They fell with their faces to the foe.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:</p><p class="line">Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.</p><p class="line">At the going down of the sun and in the morning</p><p class="line">We will remember them.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;</p><p class="line">They sit no more at familiar tables of home;</p><p class="line">They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;</p><p class="line">They sleep beyond England's foam.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But where our desires are and our hopes profound,</p><p class="line">Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,</p><p class="line">To the innermost heart of their own land they are known</p><p class="line">As the stars are known to the Night;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,</p><p class="line">Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;</p><p class="line">As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,</p><p class="line">To the end, to the end, they remain.</p></div><p class="byline">Laurence Binyon</p></body></html> · Great War