Laurence Binyon

Fourth of August

August 4, 1914

Britain declared war on Germany this date, entering WWI after Germany invaded Belgium. This poem was written in the war's first days, before the trenches.

THE FOURTH OF AUGUST
NOW in they splendour go before us,
Spirit of England, ardent-eyed!
Enkindle this dear earth that bore us,
In the hour of peril purified.
The cares we hugged drop out of vision,
Our hearts with deeper thoughts dilate.
We step from days of sour division
Into the grandeur of our fate.
For us the glorious dead have striven;

Glorious dead

Written before the Somme, before Passchendaele. In August 1914, 'glorious dead' meant historical heroes, not the 700,000 British who would die.

They battled that we might be free.
We to that living cause are given,
We arm for men that are to be.
Among the nations nobliest chartered,
England recalls her heritage.
With her is that which is not bartered,
Which force can neither quell nor cage.
For her immortal stars are burning,
With her, the hope that's never done,
The seed that's in the Spring's returning,
The very flower that seeks the sun.
We fight the fraud that feeds desire on
Lies, in a lust to enslave or kill,

Blood and iron

Bismarck's phrase for Prussian militarism—'Blut und Eisen.' Binyon frames WWI as liberal England versus German authoritarianism.

The barren creed of blood and iron,
Vampire of Europe's wasted will.
Endure, O Earth! and thou, awaken,
Purged by this dreadful winnowing-fan,

Winnowing-fan

Agricultural tool that separates wheat from chaff by blowing. War as a purifying process—a common 1914 metaphor that would die in the trenches.

O wronged, untameable, unshaken
Soul of divinely suffering man!
LAURENCE BINYON
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

War Enthusiasm, August 1914

CONTEXT Binyon wrote this poem within days of Britain entering WWI. In August 1914, most British intellectuals believed the war would be short, necessary, and purifying. They had no concept of machine guns, poison gas, or trench warfare. This isn't pro-war propaganda written later—it's genuine August 1914 enthusiasm.

The poem's key move is purification. War cleanses England of "sour division" (probably class conflict and Irish Home Rule debates). Notice the religious language: "purified," "enkindle," "immortal," "divinely suffering." War becomes a spiritual event, not a political one.

"The cares we hugged drop out of vision"—domestic politics literally disappear. The poem celebrates forgetting complexity for moral clarity. By 1918, after 700,000 British deaths, this kind of rhetoric would be impossible. Binyon himself would write very differently (he's the author of "For the Fallen," the Remembrance Day poem). This captures a specific historical moment: the last week England believed war was glorious.

Prussian Militarism as Enemy

Binyon frames WWI as ideology versus ideology: English liberty versus German "blood and iron." The "barren creed" stanza is pure propaganda, but it reflects real British beliefs. Germany was seen as militaristic, authoritarian, worshipping force.

"Vampire of Europe's wasted will"—Germany as a parasitic monster draining civilization. The metaphor matters: vampires are undead, unnatural, must be destroyed. This isn't a poem about defending Belgium; it's about destroying an evil system.

Notice what's absent: no mention of Belgium, Serbia, the actual causes of war. No soldiers, no weapons, no battlefield. Everything is abstraction—"Spirit of England," "living cause," "immortal stars." The poem sustains war enthusiasm by staying completely theoretical. Once Binyon saw actual casualties, his poetry changed completely.