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 amidst 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 blow
In Flanders
fields.
Maj. John McCrae of Guelph, On., was a doctor with the 1st
Canadian Division when it received its baptism of fire at the second battle of
Ypres in 1915. During one rest break, the exhausted physician spent 20 minutes
scribbling verses in his notebook.
The lines - Published in the British
magazine Punch later that year - began "In Flanders fields the poppies blow..."
In January 1918, just 10 months before the war ended, McCrae died of
pneumonia in the field hospital he commanded
