“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.”

"For the Fallen" (1914), fourth verse
'Condemn' is sometimes quoted as 'Contemn'. Both make sense in the context, but it was 'condemn' which was included in the first printing of the poem on page 9 of The Times of 21 September 1914. Binyon did not change it to 'contemn' when shown the proof of a later printing.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going …" by Laurence Binyon?
Laurence Binyon photo
Laurence Binyon 2
English poet, dramatist, and art scholar 1869–1943

Related quotes

Khalil Gibran photo

“The seasons shall tire and the years grow old, ere they exhaust these words: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."”

Philip: And When He Died All Mankind Died
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
Context: I too died. But in the depth of my oblivion I heard Him speak and say, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
And His voice sought my drowned spirit and I was brought back to the shore.
And I opened my eyes and I saw His white body hanging against the cloud, and His words that I had heard took the shape within me and became a new man. And I sorrowed no more.
Who would sorrow for a sea that is unveiling its face, or for a mountain that laughs in the sun?
Was it ever in the heart of man, when that heart was pierced, to say such words?
What other judge of men has released His judges? And did ever love challenge hate with power more certain of itself?
Was ever such a trumpet heard 'twixt heaven and earth?
Was it known before that the murdered had compassion on his murderers? Or that the meteor stayed his footsteps for the mole?
The seasons shall tire and the years grow old, ere they exhaust these words: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Bayard Taylor photo

“I love thee, I love but thee,
With a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old”

Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) United States poet, novelist and travel writer

"Bedouin Song" (1853), in The Poetical Works of Bayard Taylor (1907), p. 69.
Source: The Poems of Bayard Taylor
Context: I love thee, I love but thee,
With a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old,
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold!
Context: From the Desert I come to thee
On a stallion shod with fire;
And the winds are left behind
In the speed of my desire.
Under thy window I stand,
And the midnight hears my cry:
I love thee, I love but thee,
With a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old,
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold!

Winston S. Churchill photo
Van Morrison photo
Dinah Craik photo
Voltairine de Cleyre photo

“Years! Years, ye shall mix with me!
Ye shall grow a part
Of the laughing Sea”

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) American anarchist writer and feminist

"The Dirge of the Sea" (April 1891)
Context: Years! Years, ye shall mix with me!
Ye shall grow a part
Of the laughing Sea;
Of the moaning heart
Of the glittered wave
Of the sun-gleam's dart
In the ocean-grave. Fair, cold, and faithless wert thou, my own!
For that I love
Thy heart of stone!
From the heights above
To the depths below,
Where dread things move, There is naught can show
A life so trustless! Proud be thy crown!
Ruthless, like none, save the Sea, alone!

Frederick Douglass photo

“We shall neither die out, nor be driven out; but shall go with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in their favor throughout their generations.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Essay in North Star (November 1858); as quoted in Faces at the Bottom of the Well : The Permanence of Racism (1992) by Derrick Bell, p. 40
1850s
Context: We deem it a settled point that the destiny of the colored man is bound up with that of the white people of this country. … We are here, and here we are likely to be. To imagine that we shall ever be eradicated is absurd and ridiculous. We can be remodified, changed, assimilated, but never extinguished. We repeat, therefore, that we are here; and that this is our country; and the question for the philosophers and statesmen of the land ought to be, What principles should dictate the policy of the action toward us? We shall neither die out, nor be driven out; but shall go with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in their favor throughout their generations.

Joseph Addison photo
Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo
Nick Drake photo

“I'm growing old and I wanna go home.
I'm growing old and I don't wanna know.”

Nick Drake (1948–1974) British singer-songwriter

Black Eyed Dog, first appeared on Fruit Tree (1979)
Song lyrics

Related topics