Showing results by author "Laurence Binyon" in All Categories

Robert Laurence Binyon, CH, was born on 10th August 1869 in Lancaster in Lancashire, England, to Quaker parents, Frederick Binyon and Mary Dockray. He studied at St Paul's School, London, before enrolling at Trinity College, Oxford, to read classics. Binyon’s first published work was Persephone in 1890. As a poet, his output was not prodigious, and, in the main, the volumes he did publish were slim, but his reputation was of the highest order. When the Poet Laureate, Alfred Austin, died in 1913, Binyon was considered alongside Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling....

The narrator pledges to donate 50% of his proceeds to The Royal British Legion Poppy Day Appeal - please support. The Fourth of August [1914] was the day that Britain entered into World War One. This poem by Laurence Binyon reminds the British public of their heroic past, and that the travails that lie ahead are justified by the righteous cause, and by following in the footsteps of those who fought before they will vanquish the foe.

In the midst of bombs and bullets, trenches and trauma, the soldiers of World War I, and those observing the horrors taking place from home, took pen to paper to record their experiences in verse. These poems - considered the greatest written during WWI and some of the greatest poetry of the twentieth century - show the horror of war but also shine a light on the strength of human courage, bravery, and virtue.