The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #43581   Message #645316
Posted By: Murray MacLeod
08-Feb-02 - 10:28 AM
Thread Name: BS: Great Misquotations
Subject: RE: BS: Great Misquotations
Bald Eagle, I am positive.

I knew this to be a oft-misquoted line when I was in school, and that wasn't yesterday. You will find it misquoted universally, but I was assured by my English teacher that Binyon originally wrote "contemn", and as I recall, she had some sort of connection to Binyon (knew somebody who knew somebody ....)

I believe the confusion started when the poem was first published in an English newspaper, (the London Times) and the misquotation just took off from there.Today it can be found misquoted on countless memorials world wide.

Actually, if you stop and consider the line, "condemn" just doesn't make a great deal of sense, compared to "contemn", does it ?

Murray