Friday, February 1, 2008

Flanders Fields

Flanders Fields is a graveyard in Flanders, Belgium where many of the dead soldiers from World War I are buried. This poem, call the most popular poem of the World War I years, was written on May 3, 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian Army doctor, after the death of one his men the day before. The Poem was first published on December 8, 1915 in Punch magazine.

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 among 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 falling 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.

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