Laurence Binyon
Laurence Binyon was an influential English poet, art historian, and museum curator, born to a clergyman. He demonstrated a strong affinity for art and poetry from a young age, eventually studying at Trinity College, Oxford, where he earned degrees in classics and humanities. His literary career began in the late 19th century, and he published extensively, producing works roughly equivalent to a book a year for five decades. Binyon's poetry gained significant recognition following World War I, particularly with his poignant poem "For the Fallen," which resonated deeply with the public during that tumultuous period.
In addition to his poetry, Binyon served in the Red Cross during the war and was actively involved in art and literature lectures worldwide, including a notable tenure at Harvard University as the Norton Professor of Poetry. He achieved high honors, such as being appointed the Byron Chair of Letters in Athens and receiving the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. Despite his accomplishments and respect in literary circles, Binyon's traditional style placed him at a distance from the emerging Modernist movement. His final significant work was a translation of Dante's "Divine Comedy," showcasing his dedication to literary excellence.
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Laurence Binyon
Poet
- Born: August 10, 1869
- Birthplace: Lancaster, England
- Died: March 10, 1943
Biography
The son of a clergyman, Laurence Binyon demonstrated early on the interest in art and poetry that would occupy him throughout his life. After attending St. Paul’s School, he took two degrees, one in classics (1890) and another in humanities (1892), at Trinity College at Oxford, where his poem “Persephone” was awarded the prestigious Newdigate Prize. In 1904, he married Cicely Margaret Powell, with whom he had three daughters. Twelve years earlier he had taken a job at the British Museum, where he curated books and drawings until he retired in 1933.
Throughout his working life as a museum curator, Binyon was also a phenomenally productive author, producing the equivalent of a book every year during a fifty-year period from 1894 until 1944. Many of these works were devoted to art history and criticism. Appreciation for his poetry came in the wake of World War I. Binyon served as a Red Cross orderly and visited the front lines of the war in 1916. World War I inspired several collections of verse. One of his poems, “For the Fallen,” was well received by the public. In the 1930’s, Binyon traveled widely, lecturing on art and literature at numerous universities around the world, including Harvard, where he succeeded T. S. Eliot as Norton Professor of Poetry.
At seventy years of age, he was appointed to the Byron Chair of Letters at the University of Athens. He was also made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor and a Fellow of the British Royal Society. Binyon was, to be sure, a thoroughly respectable and respected man of letters in his day. However, the very qualities that made his reputation—cultivation, dignity, and a tendency towards the didactic— served to remove him from the pantheon of literary lights as Victorianism gave way to Modernism. His last—and perhaps best—contribution to literature was his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, skillfully duplicating the Italian poet’s original terza rima.