For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

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 contemn.
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.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

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.

For the Fallen
by Laurenc Binyon

Ninety years ago today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the guns fell silent in Europe. The armistice ending the Great War (World War I) was signed between Germany and the allied powers including England, France and the United States.

For much of Europe, November 11 is still Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, or Poppy Day. Regardless of which title one uses to commemorate the day, it remains a day to remember the Great War and those lost during the conflict. For the United States World War II was the defining conflict but for much of Europe the horrors of the Great War left a deeper and longer lasting psychological scar. Those soldiers who served were the "Lost Generation" - entire cities and towns losing all of their young men sometimes in a single battle. Those who did return were many of them never the same - either from physical injury or from the trauma of having lived through the war. The legacy of the Great War had an impact on every facet of European culture, and so one begins to see why the day that commemorates its ending still has such resonance for the nations of Europe.

And yet I would wager that most Americans today know nothing about World War I. I doubt I could find 2 people out of 10 that could place the war in the correct decade, let alone understand any of its causes or its larger impact on the course of history. And though this does no absolve us of our ignorance or our forgetfulness, the simple fact is that for most Americans World War I had little impact, especially compared to the scale of involvement in World War II. It happened "Over There", so why worry about it?

I admit that for myself, I only know what I know of World War I because of my background as a history teacher. And even what I know is woefully inadequate in comparison to what is owed the lost generation.