“They Shall Grow Not Old, As We That Are Left Grow Old”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 05/25/2020 – 11:45
The fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen” published in The Times newspaper on 21st September 1914, was written to honor the young Englishmen who had fallen in the war that had begun seven weeks earlier.
The horror would continue for another 1812 days.
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.
This stanza is read at the Menin Gate as the “Ode of Remembrance” every evening at 8 p.m. to honor the 90,000 dead in and around Ypres who have no known grave.
It is now used as a tribute to all casualties of war, irrespective of nationality.
The above copy was handwritten by Mr. Binyon while he was on duty as a medical orderly in France in 1915 or 1916 and auctioned at Bonham’s as Lot 50, April 10, 2013