Binyon, (Robert) Laurence

(1869-1943)

   English poet, dramatist, and art historian. The son of a clergyman, of Quaker stock, he was educated at St. Paul's School and Trinity College, Oxford, and, in 1890, was awarded the Newdigate prize his poem "Persephone." He was in charge of Oriental prints and drawings at the British Museum, London, and his first book on Oriental art, Painting in the Far East (1908), was a classic. His best-known dramas are Atilla (1907) and Arthur (1923), set to music by Edward Elgar. He is one commemorated by a stone in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, to "The Poets of the First World War." (The dates given there are 1869-1945.) One of his many poems, "For the Fallen" (1914), is quoted at the Act of Remembrance on Armistice Day and ends "We will remember them." Some of his other poems: "In the High Leaves of a Walnut," "In the Shadow of a Broken House," "Invocation to Youth," "Men of Verdun," "Nothing is Enough!" "The Anvil," "The Apple Boughs," "The Arras Road," "The Bathers," "The Bowl of Water," "The Children Dancing," "The Healers," "The Zeppelin."

   Sources: A Treasury of War Poetry-The Fallen (www.geocities.com/Binyon,{ (Robert) Laurencebblair/fallen_twp.htm). Collected Poems Laurence Binyon: Volume 2. Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1931. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).