By Cutter Mitchell – Cutter@BCBP.co
In Flanders Field is perhaps one of the most important pieces of literature inspired by war. With human history so plauged with war and conflict, this poem is not the first or last to be inspired by violence and peace but it is one of a kind.
It was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in the early 1900s, a physician & poet turned soldier. McCrae was 41 when he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (their version of the Army). Instead of simply serving with the medical core, he volunteered for a combat unit as a gunner and field medical officer.
After fighting through two tours and loosing friends in battle he began to reflect on war. But not in the Star Spangle Banner sense, the glory of it all, but the humanity of it.
In Flanders Field does not try to romanticize war or battle. It does not give us a false sense of duty or honor. It restores the humanity to the Dead. In this sense the poem has a way of reminding who the fallen really are. They are our fathers, our brothers, sons and grandchildren. They are the ones who have given up their lives for us to go on, and in that we must carry the faith of humanity, freedom, for them.
In Flanders Field
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
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.