Talk:Laurence Binyon

Condemn or contemn
It is somewhat disapointing that Wikipedia is guilty of the same butchery of the English Language in misquoting the Binyon poem.

In the fifth stanza of the poem: They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

The second line should end with the word "contemn" not the popularly misquoted "condemn"

The verb contemn means to look down on with disdain, to despise or to scorn.


 * Fixed, thanks. Do you know that you could have fixed it yourself? Filiocht | Blarneyman 07:22, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC)

According to this page, the correct word is in fact "condemn". Oball 15:29, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

This "debate seems important enough to be added to the article itself. I've parahrased what the link below says in the article 195.93.21.65 21:23, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

There is interesting material cited by the Maitland Mercury.
 * The poem was first published in The Times September 21, 1914, with the word "condemn". Some say this was a typographical error, but to counter that is the argument Binyon held galley proofs for another publication, The Winnowing Fan, published a month or two later, and this also used the word condemn.


 * His biographer Dr John Hatcher devoted a chapter to For the Fallen and does not mention the controversy. The British Society of Authors, executor of the Binyon estate, says the word is "definitely" condemn.


 * His memorial stone at the British Museum uses the word condemn and a copy of the stanza, in Binyon's hand, was published in Australia in Reveille in August 1943 and it also displayed the word "condemn".

 Ty  01:12, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

i agree
i think that this poem should stay the way it is because that was the way it was written. we shouldn't go messing around with a part of the digger history, this is what we say every year on anzac day and why should it change now. i'm only 15 but all i no is that this is a special peom and one not to be messed with.

created new article
i created a new article on for the fallen - as there was a lot of info in the article just on this one poem.

Why Wikipedia deserves to be congratulated
How good to see that Wikipedia gets something correct which many sources get wrong. I refer to the poem "For the Fallen", which is correctly quouted here as "They shall grow not old". At least this does not make that popular error - "They shall not grow old". Today (Remembrance Sunday 2008) I had been to service at a church where the misquote was made. Wikipedia is not guilty of this error. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 20:18, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

Dante Translation
I cannot, for the life of me, find any excerpt of his translation of Dante's Comedy anywhere online. Does anybody have a link to an excerpt? I'm sure it would improve this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.163.0.41 (talk) 18:07, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Quaker reference
The article stated that Binyon's father was a "Quaker minister". This is simply impossible. Quakers who follow the silent tradition (and that includes all British Quakers) have never had ministers. To correct the error I have simply removed the word minister. If anyone feels they have a way to correct this that is less clumsy then please go ahead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robquin (talk • contribs) 22:55, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

Wrong Reference in Dante Translation
While stating that Binyon revised the whole three part of Divine Comedy, a (10th) reference is given which points to the pp. xliii. . I have the book that is given in the reference but the page it refers to has nothing to do with Binyon's revising three parts etc. Instead, it gives the chronological list of Dante's life, not even mentioning Binyon per se. Underblue (talk) 13:18, 20 June 2020 (UTC)