Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) was born in Lancaster, England. His first volume of poetry, Lyric Poetry was published in 1894.
During the War he served with the Red Cross, visiting the Front in 1916. Binyon was already in his mid-forties when he wrote the poem For the Fallen in September 1914, which has the most famous lines of all war and rememberance poetry in them
Poem:
Come back, sweet yesterdays!
Sweet yesterdays, come back!
Ah! Not in my dreams only
vex me with joy, to wake
from dream to truth, twice lonely,
and with renewed heart--ache.
Let night be wholly black,
so day have some kind rays.
Come back, sweet yesterdays!
Sweet yesterdays, come back!
