For the Fallen

The "Ode of Remembrance" is an ode taken from Laurence Binyon's poem, "For the Fallen", which was first published in The Times in September 1914.

"For the Fallen" was specifically composed in honour of the casualties of the British Expeditionary Force, which by then already suffered severely at the Battle of Mons and the Battle of the Marne in the opening phase of the war on the Western Front. Over time, the third and fourth stanzas of the poem (usually nowadays just the fourth) have been claimed as a tribute to all casualties of war, regardless of state, and it is this selection of For the Fallen to which the term "Ode of Remembrance" usually refers.

Laurence Binyon wrote "For the Fallen", which has seven stanzas, while sitting on the cliffs between Pentire Point and The Rumps in north Cornwall, UK. A stone plaque was erected at the spot in 2001 to commemorate the fact. The plaque bears the inscription:

There is also a plaque on the beehive monument on the East Cliff above Portreath in central North Cornwall which cites that as the place where Binyon composed the poem.

A quotation appears on the Calgary Soldiers' Memorial.

A plaque on a statue dedicated to the fallen in La Valletta, Malta, is also inscribed with these words.

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.

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Wikipedia