In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Walkin’ under the Menin Gate Memorial, you see lots of flowers to remember the fallen soldiers of the Great War. One kind flower is very prominent … poppies, the symbol of remembrance of war. 


It is the contradictory symbol of the peaceful flower-filled fields of Flanders where the dead lay buried under the ground where war was waged. Its colour is also a reminder of the blood that was spilled in those battles.

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.

This poem (do you remember the museum I visited last Sunday?) was written by John McCrae upon a scrap of paper upon the back of Colonel Lawrence Cosgrave in the trenches during a lull in the bombings on May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before.

John McCrae's verse had forever bound the image of the Red Poppy to the memory of the Great War. The poppy was eventually adopted by the British and Canadian Legions as the symbol of remembrance of World War One and a means of raising funds for disabled veterans.

Within’ the next few days, particularly in the week before November, the 11th (Remembrance Day), people all over the world – but especially in the U.K, the U.S. and Canada – will buy and wear a poppy as an act of remembrance to fallen soldiers at war.

I'll wear it proudly !