Binyon, Laurence

Laurence Binyon, in full Robert Laurence Binyon, (born April 10, 1869, Lancaster, Lancashire, England—died March 10, 1943, Reading, Berkshire), English poet, dramatist, and art historian, a pioneer in the European study of Far Eastern painting.

The son of a clergyman, Binyon was educated at St. Paul’s School, London. At Trinity College, Oxford, he won the Newdigate Prize for his poem Persephone (1890). He combined his lifelong interests—books and painting—when in 1893 he began work at the British Museum, London, where later he was in charge of Oriental prints and drawings. His first book on Oriental art was Painting in the Far East (1908), which is still a classic. His later books on art included The Flight of the Dragon (1911) and The Spirit of Man in Asian Art (1935), as well as writings on English watercolours.

World War I came as a devastating experience, and Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen” (1914) won immediate recognition as the expression of the feelings of a disillusioned generation. The poem was set to music by Sir Edward Elgar. His best poetry, though written after the war, employed the diction traditional in the prewar years. Collected Poems appeared in 1931. He was also concerned with the revival of verse drama; his works in that form included Attila (1907), Arthur (1923), and The Young King (1934). His verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy was published in three parts in 1933, 1938, and 1943.