At the going down of the sun......

We shall remember them.

ANZAC Day today and whilst I didn't go to the dawn service, it's still a poignant day of remembrance.  Our step-father Frank passed away 19 years ago today and with his passing, we began to lose Mum too.  ANZAC Day holds a lot of reasons to remember.

It seems that many services/parades up and down the country were severely limited in their veterans participation......large gatherings, older members of the community and COVID simply don't work well together these days so, to protect the older members, many places held much simpler services without the parade or veterans.  

When I saw the sun going down this evening I reminded again of the simple but powerful words that have been echoed at many places around the world on Remembrance days.  Those words are from a poem by Laurence Binyon, the full version of which is below:

For the Fallen

Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), published in The Times newspaper on 21 September 1914.

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 condemn.
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.

xx