In Flanders Fields

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 Field.

    John McCrae (1872-1918), Canadian lieutenant colonel, as the Company doctor, he was
inspired to write the poem on May 3, 1915 - over 100 years ago. In the absence of a chaplain, he conducted the burial service for his friend, an artillery officer, who had been killed in the conflict.

    To understand the poem, we need to realize that when artillery and bombs went off, they left the ground powdered with lime. Few plants could grow in that death-filled ground - but poppies could. The poem observes how poppies blow in the fields where the fallen soldiers are buried. The sound of the guns firing on the western front had almost drowned out the natural birds' songs in the skies above - almost, but not entirely, it is worth noting. This tells us there is still hope.

    But not for the men who have died, who until so recently had lived and loved. But the poem does not call war futile: the final stanza calls for those who are living to take the baton (the torch) and continue the fight for freedom.

        If the living do not finish the fight begun by those who gave their lives, the dead will not be able to rest in their graves. The poem begins with the three words that make its title and ends with the same three words: In Flanders fields. May we carry the torch.