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.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918), Canadian Army.
McCrae died of pneumonia on January 28, 1918, while still commanding No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in France. That may have been the same hospital at which my uncle died the previous spring, a victim of wounds suffered in the Canadian offensive at Vimy Ridge.
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8 comments:
I had a great uncle in the air corps. He was lucky and came back whole in body and mind.
The Canadians broke through German lines at Vimy but there was no follow up British Command didn't believe they would do it. So the war lasted another year and a half.
The Brits never understood how good "the colonials" were -- Canadians and Aussies in particular. The most dangerous people Canadians faced in WW1 were the Germans. The second most dangerous people were their own officers, particularly British officers.
I just hope that we never have WWIII.
One of my most favorite poems!!! And an absolutely perfect post for this Remembrance Day...You always leave me inspired!!! God bless you, my dear friend...and May God bless us all with peace!!!! Hugs, Janine
® CW: I also hope we don't have a WW3. There won't be anything left if we do.
® Janine: Thanks.
Lovely post. I saw a War Veteran in the town yesterday, in full uniform, everyone walking by as he sat a watched the world go by. I wonder what he was thinking.
® Good question, Reasons. I wonder if he was thinking, "Is this what I served to protect?"
I remember that poem from when I was a child standing at a rememberance day service at the barracks in Canada when I was five - I remember the poppies. And no the Brits didn't understand the sacrifice the Colonials made and some don't now but there again some of us do...
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