In Flanders Fields

Armistice Day is a day for remembering and celebrating peace after the Armistice signed in 1918 following WWI on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:00am. I learned today that in the U.S. church bells used to ring for 2 minutes at 11:00am on 11/11 and there was a moment of silence across the country. What a nice tradition; I don't know why we don't do that anymore.

On this Armistice Day 2010, I am looking back on Lt. Colonel John McCrae's poem, "In Flanders Fields", which remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. Armistice Day is a time for reminisance and this poem makes us think of all those that are no longer with us. "In Flanders Fields" is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in Ypres in the spring of 1915. McCrae was a surgeon in the war and his young friend, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem.

This is my favorite poem, probably because of its poignance and heartfelt sadness, I'm not sure. But it gives me goosebumps every time I read it.


In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

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.


Snoopy and the gang visit Flanders Fields. Wonderful explanation and recitation of the poem by Linus;) "What have we learned, Charlie Brown?"

Poppies

When McCrae wrote “In Flanders Fields the poppies blow…” only destiny knew the impact his words would have on the world. In giving a voice to the grief and suffering McCrae must have felt as he witnessed the horrors of war, "In Flanders Fields" also gave voice to the poppy - the humble, scarlet flower that grew to become Canada’s quintessential symbol of remembrance.

This was not the first time a link between the poppy and war had been made. A century earlier, a writer during the Napoleonic wars noted how the battlefields became covered with poppies once the fighting was over.

Now with the First World War, the battles that took place in Flanders infused the soil with lime that enabled the poppy to thrive in a landscape of destruction. Nature could not have selected a more fitting symbol to solemnize a soldier’s ultimate sacrifice. By 1918 the poem was well known throughout the allied world. Moina Michael, an American woman, wrote these lines in reply.

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies

She then adopted the custom of wearing a red poppy in memory of the sacrifices of war and also as a symbol of keeping the faith. A French women, Madam Guerin, visiting the United States, learned of the custom and took it one step further. When she returned to France she decided to hand make the red poppies and sell them to raise money for the benefit of the orphaned and destitute women and children in war torn areas of France. This tradition spread to Canada, The United States and Australia and is still followed today. The money collected from the sale of poppies goes to fund various veterans programs and is a powerful reminder of the sacrifices made by those before us.

Peace, my friends.