In Flanders Fields
Lieut -Col John McCrae, 1915
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 amidst 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.
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The red poppy has been part of Remembrance Day services since the early 1920's, and is now worn on other commemorative occasions, including ANZAC Day. During the First World War the battlefields were literally churned by high explosive shells, creating a surreal landscape of mud, entangled barbed wire and water filled craters.
When given a brief chance to recover, and especially after the 1918 Armistice, the first flowers to bloom were the red poppies. In 1915, Canadian Brigade Surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918), was so moved by the sight of the fields of poppies stretching across the Ypres battlefield that he put pen to paper and wrote his moving poem, "In Flanders Fields."
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