[4][5][6]On 23 August, in Britain's opening action of World War I on the Western Front, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) suffered a loss at the Battle of Mons and the subsequent lengthy retreat.

[7][8] "For the Fallen" was specifically composed in honour of the casualties of the BEF, written immediately following the retreat from the Battle of Mons.

Binyon composed the original poem while sitting on the cliffs between Pentire Point and The Rumps in north Cornwall, UK.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, There is music in the midst of desolation And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; They sit no more at familiar tables of home; They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound, Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the Night; (21–24)

[1] The soldiers are "straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow," and though facing "odds uncounted" are "staunch to the end.

[17] In the fifth stanza, Binyon speaks of loss and mourns the deaths of soldiers who left behind "familiar tables" and "laughing comrades.

In his biography on Laurence Binyon, John Hatcher noted:[8]In its gravitas, its tenderness, and depth of grief, "For the Fallen" looks as if it should have appeared in The Times of 21 September 1918 not 1914.

In 2018, at the centennial of the signing of the Armistice, plans were made to ring carillons and church bells across the Commonwealth at local sundown, in reference to the line, "at the going down of the sun... we will remember them."

[24] A quotation appears on the Calgary Soldiers' Memorial and on the cenotaph in Grandview Park, Vancouver, British Columbia.

A memorial in Teluk Intan commemorating the fallen of both the First and Second World Wars, which was installed during the colonial period in British-ruled Malaya, includes a few lines from the poem.

The line "Lest we forget", taken from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Recessional" (which incidentally has nothing to do with remembering the fallen in war), is often added as if were part of the ode and repeated in response by those listening, especially in Australia.

[25] Sir Edward Elgar set to music three of Binyon's poems ("The Fourth of August", "To Women", and "For the Fallen", published within the collection The Winnowing Fan) as The Spirit of England, Op.

Neither composer was responsible for this, and Elgar initially offered to withdraw but was persuaded to continue by the literary and art critic Sidney Colvin and by Binyon himself.

[27] An abridged version of Elgar's setting of "For the Fallen", called "With Proud Thanksgiving", was sung at the unveiling of the new Cenotaph in Whitehall on 11 November 1920.

[29] The text of "For the Fallen" has also been set by Mark Blatchly for treble voices, organ and trumpet (which plays "The Last Post" in the background).