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 fields.

~ JOHN MCCRAE, 1915

【♖】

From 1914 to 1918, Flanders Fields was a major battle theatre on the Western Front during WWI. A million soldiers from more than fifty different countries were wounded, missing, or killed in action there.

John McCrae (a Canadian doctor) wrote the poem In Flanders Fields shortly after losing a friend in Ypres. His famous poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance.

【♜】【♞】【♟】