(AdobeStock)
With November 11th coming up, many children ask about what Remembrance Sunday is for, why everyone is wearing a Poppy, and what that means.
There is even a poem about the poppy and its symbolism for the national holiday, written by Laurence Binyon.
‘With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
The flesh of her flesh they were, the 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 amid 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 labor of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt like a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their 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, they remain.”
His poem was even f, due to the effect World War I had on those left behind.