Today is Remembrance Sunday, when we commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars, and later conflicts.
To help us mark the occasion, Poetry Ed Abbie has unearthed this poem from our Archives.
Remembrance
For ever young, in Flanders field they lie,
In peace in silent seas, on foreign shore,
In place with name unknown, in land unseen;
And we, perhaps forgetting, walk on by
Their sad memorials, and think no more
Of lives now passed, and lives that might have been.
In park and green and village marketplace
They stand, these ageing monuments – and we
Look past the loving tributes carved thereon
And never slack or slow our hurried pace
To call to mind the fading memory
Of these young men, much missed, though now long gone.
To read the names of honoured dead, long lost
To grieving parents, children, sweethearts, wives,
The names of men who never more will wake,
Who bought us – at what sad and painful cost –
Our freedom, and indeed our very lives.
By H. Meyer
If you are looking for ways to mark Remembrance Sunday, click here for suggestions from the Royal British Legion.
For more from Poetry Ed Abbie, click here.
For more from “The People’s Friend” archives, click the tag below.
Abigail Phillips Abbie is the newest member of the fiction team at the "Friend." She loves how varied the role is - every day is different and there is always a new story to read. She is keen to work closely with established writers and discover new writers, too.
