Two well known symbols to mark Remembrance Sunday. Poppies that grew so profusely on the battle fields of the First World War, and the words of the fourth stanza from the poem ‘For the fallen’. The poem was written by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) and published in The Times newspaper on 21 September 1914. The poem was written a few weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. During these weeks the British Expeditionary Force had suffered casualties following its first encounter with the Imperial German Army at the Battle of Mons on 23 August, its rearguard action during the retreat from Mons in late August and the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August, and its participation with the French Army in holding up the Imperial German Army at the First Battle of the Marne between 5 and 9 September 1914.
Laurence said in 1939 that the four lines of the fourth stanza came to him first. These words of the fourth stanza have become especially familiar and famous, having been adopted by the Royal British Legion as an Exhortation for ceremonies of Remembrance to commemorate fallen Servicemen and women.
Poppies grew well in the churned up soil of the battlefield of the Western Front in World War One, the fighting and shelling creating ideal conditions for them to grow.
Sorry for my absence yesterday, I was suffering from dizziness, one of the rarer side effects of the Moderna vaccine that I had on Saturday evening. I’m much better today.
One would have thought we could have learned the futility of war by now, with all the pain and suffering it brings. Sadly, we still seem not to have learned.
Ian
November 20th, 2021
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Glad you are feeling better
Hope everything is o.k. by now.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and fav, they are very much appreciated.
Feeling fully recovered from my jab now, but dull grey weather is a nuisance when it comes to taking photos!
Ian
One would have thought we could have learned the futility of war by now, with all the pain and suffering it brings. Sadly, we still seem not to have learned.
Ian