Volume 2 Issue 79

May 26, 2003

In Flanders Fields

Remembering our war dead on Memorial Day

In recent years, as the US has once again found itself involved in wars across the globe, the meaning of Memorial Day has somewhat come back into the national consciousness, unlike in times when it was more regarded as the day the pool opened or the first trip to the beach.

Perhaps the most famous passage of remembering those who have given their lives for their country is the poem In Flanders Fields, written by a Canadian Army doctor, Major John McCrae after the Battle of the Ypres salient in April and May of 1915. The description of the poppies in the field (poppies only bloom when the soil has been disturbed, so the first Spring of the WWI saw one of the greatest blooms of poppies in the fields of France ever) is used to illustrate the huge loss of life in the war, which was a stalemate for most of the conflict.

McCrae wrote the poem on May 2, after an old friend of his had died in the battle. Unhappy with it, he threw it away, only for it to be saved by the mail officer, who had seen him writing it. It was later published in the UK towards the end of 1915. Major McCrae would die in the war himself in 1918, but his poem continues to be a reminder of the lives lost in wars all across the world, and the remembrance that is due to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

In Flanders Fields
Major John McCrae, Surgeon, 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Canadian Army; Ypres, France, May 3, 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 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.