In REMEMBRANCE

 "Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh, that is to say , over fear; fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of illness, of loneliness and of death. There is no real piety without heroism. It is the glorious concentration of courage." -Amiel

 I've just discovered the poem "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon ( 1869-1943) I'm not sure why I never noticed it before. I've heard parts of it often enough. Never paid attention who wrote it or why. And I should have. It was written Sept 1914, on a cliff overlooking the Cornish coast, and used, apparently, for remembrance services after WW1. Binyon was too old to serve in the war in combat, so he became an orderly for the Red Cross. This fits well with Canada's Remembrance Day which is on Nov 11th.....

 "With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea."

 "Fallen in the cause of the free."

 "Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal"

 "They went with songs to the battle, they were young."

 "They fell with their faces to the foe."

 "At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them."

 "They mingle not with their laughing comrades again"

 "They sleep beyond England's foam"

 "But where our desires are and our hopes profound, felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight."

 "As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust."

 "Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain."

 "As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness."

 "To the end, to the end, they remain."

 EXCERPTS from "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon ( 1000 beautiful things, 1948)
Photographs: M Woods 2016