In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— John McCrae [In Flanders Fields]

Comments

[Tim Jackson]

One of my favorite poems ever. I remember reading it in a Lit' class in college and getting choked up as I read it to the class.

There are few poems that have ever had that impact on me, but this is one of them.

[Mike Wagner]

Long before I knew the poem I knew somehow "poppies" were connected with soldiers and Memorial Day.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) sold them and my dad always bought one for each of his boys.

As a Marine in WW2 he knew what war meant even if he never knew McCrae's poem.

Keep creating...Memories worth keeping alive,
Mike

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Tim - poetry is such a way to the soul - and to connecting with images and sounds and feelings people experience.

@Mike - we should not forget those who have laid their lives and their souls before us. They are a gift, and a precious one at that. The more I learn about other cultures, the more connected I feel to other ways of seeing and experiencing life.

[Darren Barefoot]

I'm about to do that thing that every Canadian does:

That poem is written by a Canadian. He was a surgeon in World War I, and was killed shortly after he wrote the poem.