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This page is about the poem. For the museum in Ypres, Belgium, see In Flanders Fields Museum. For the book by historian Leon Wolff, see In Flanders Fields: The 1917 Campaign.
A small portion of In Flanders Fields appeared alongside McCrae's portrait on a Canadian stamp of 1968, issued to commemorate a half-century since his death.
A small portion of In Flanders Fields appeared alongside McCrae's portrait on a Canadian stamp of 1968, issued to commemorate a half-century since his death.
Wreaths of artificial poppies used as a symbol of remembrance
Wreaths of artificial poppies used as a symbol of remembrance
Roll of Honour of Clan McRae's dead of World War I at Eilean Donan castle. In Flanders Fields features prominently.
Roll of Honour of Clan McRae's dead of World War I at Eilean Donan castle. In Flanders Fields features prominently.

"In Flanders Fields" is one of the most famous poems about World War I, and has been called "the most popular poem" produced by the war.[1] It is written in the form of a French rondeau. Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote it on May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before. The poem was first published on December 8, that year in Punch magazine.



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[edit] Historical context

The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders where war casualties had been buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day. The poem is part of Remembrance Day solemnities in Allied countries which contributed troops to World War I, particularly in countries of the British Empire that did so.

The poem "In Flanders Fields" was written upon a scrap of paper upon the back of Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, during a lull in the bombings (as recited to his grandson).

[edit] 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

[edit] Status

The poem has achieved near-mythic status in contemporary Canada and is one of the nation's most prominent symbols. Most Remembrance Day ceremonies will feature a reading of the poem in some form, and many Canadian schoolchildren memorize the verse. This is also true of the United Kingdom where the poem holds as one of the nations best loved.

A portion of the poem is now printed on Canadian $10 notes, where it spawned a false rumour that the poem had been misprinted, resulting from popular confusion between the first line's "blow" and the penultimate line's "grow". The use of "grow" in the first line is an authentic variation however. It appears in at least one autograph (see In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems), and schools in Guelph (McCrae's birthplace) once taught that "the poppies grow" could refer to spreading blood stains on the shallow graves.

[edit] Criticisms

Critic Paul Fussell, in The Great War and Modern Memory, points out the sharp distinction between the pastoral, sacrificial tone of the poem's first nine lines and the "recruiting-poster rhetoric" of the poem's third stanza; he argues that, appearing in 1915, the poem would serve to denigrate any negotiated peace that would end the war, and calls these lines "a propaganda argument," saying "words like vicious and stupid would not seem to go too far."[2]

[edit] Other Versions

An official adaptation into French, used by the Canadian government in Remembrance Day ceremonies, was written by Jean Pariseau and is entitled Au champ d'honneur.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 248.
  2. ^ Fussell, pp. 249-250.

[edit] References in popular culture

  • The song "We Are the Lost" by the group Libera paraphrases this poem along with For the Fallen, sung as a choral hymn.
  • Mort Shuman uses lines from the poem in his translation of the song "Marieke" by Jacques Brel, the Belgian composer.
  • The Guess Who - Friends Of Mine uses the lyric:
In Flanders Fields the poppies grow
between the crosses row on row
to mark the dead
To Flanders Fields the hippies go
to smoke the poppies there below
and feed their heads
  • In the TV special "What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?", Linus recites the poem while standing in front of the remains of WWI.
  • An episode of The Simpsons parodies the title with "When Flanders Failed".
  • In the film Mr. Holland's Opus, Jay Thomas, playing a high school football coach, reads the poem at the funeral of one of his former players, who was killed in action in Vietnam.
  • The song "Flanders Fields" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters from their 1989 debut album "Another Mayberry" is an almost verbatim adaptation of the poem.
  • The line "To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high" is written on the wall of the Montreal Canadiens' locker room.
  • The first track on Siouxsie and the Banshees' second LP, "Join Hands" is called "Poppy Day" and uses several lines from the poem.
  • Herman Wouk's novel City Boy includes a comical scene of a droning marathon recitation of the poem in an elementary school assembly.
  • George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four contains the phrase "We are the dead", alluding to McCrae's poem. It is quoted by the novel's main character, Winston Smith.


[edit] External links