In Flanders Fields: Lest We Forget

Today we wear poppies for Remembrance Day here in Canada as a symbol to remember and honour those who have served our country in the military.   Why poppies? The wearing of poppies came about in direct reference to John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields.

Flickr, ahisgett

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.

Flickr, scrumpyboy

Wild poppies grow and flower in areas where other flowers cannot.  Their seeds can lie dormant for years until the conditions are just right for them to grow – when there are no other plants to compete with and when the soil has been disturbed making it easy for them to take root. 

In May 1915, Canadian doctor and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields to express the emotion he felt after witnessing the death and presiding over the funeral of his friend 22 year old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer.  The soil conditions on the on the battlefield were ideal for growing poppies and so as McCrae wrote his poem there, he was surrounded by poppies growing everywhere. 

There is even more than this to the symbolism of the poppies in McCrae’s poem.  Poppies are known as symbols of sleep.  Morphine is derived from certain types of poppies and it was often used during war times to put a wounded soldier to sleep.  The poem’s last line, “We shall not sleep, though poppies grow, in Flanders fields,” makes reference to this.

Flickr, anathea

John McCrae’s poem inspired an American professor, Moina Michael, to write a response to it titled We Shall Keep the Faith in 1918:

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
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,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
In Flanders Fields we fought

Flickr, ThatCanadianGirl

Michael not only wrote a response to McCrae’s poem but she was so moved by it, that she vowed to wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who fought in the war.  She bought 25 poppies to use as a symbol during a remembrance ceremony as means of keeping the faith with all who had died during the war and others began to embrace the custom.  In 1920, Madame Guerin on a visit to the United States from France observed the custom and was touched by it.  She returned to France and began making handmade poppies, selling them to raise money for poor children living in war-torn areas.  News of this reached Canada and the Great War Veterans’ Association (now the Royal Canadian Legion) officially adopted the poppy as the flower of remembrance on July 5, 1921.  Now, millions of Canadians buy and wear poppies to show their support for our veterans.  The poem has been translated into French and other languages and has been set to music as in this video below.

Free audiobook http://librivox.org/in-flanders-fields-by-john-mccrae/   

Copy of the poem handwritten by John McCrae http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-poppies.html  

The In Flanders Fields museum in Ypres  http://www.inflandersfields.be/

Lest we forget…