by Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943)
To women
Language: English
Your hearts are lifted up, your hearts That have foreknown the utter price. Your hearts burn upward like a flame Of splendour and of sacrifice. For you, you too, to battle go, Not with the marching drum and cheers But in the watch of solitude And through the boundless night of fears. Swift, swifter than those hawks of war, Those threatening wings that pulse the air, Far as the vanward ranks are set, You are gone before them, you are there! And not a shot comes blind with death And not a stab of steel is pressed Home, but invisibly it tore And entered first a woman’s breast. Amid the thunder of the guns, The lightnings of the lance and sword, Your hope, your dread, your throbbing pride, Your infinite passion is outpoured. From hearts that are as one high heart, Withholding naught from doom and bale Burningly offered up, - to bleed, To bear, to break, but not to fail!
Authorship:
- by Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943), "To women", appears in The Winnowing-Fan, no. 10, first published 1914 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Edward Elgar, Sir (1857 - 1934), "To women", published 1916 [ soprano or tenor, chorus, and orchestra ], from The Spirit of England, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson
This text was added to the website: 2016-07-10
Line count: 24
Word count: 161