A wonderful poem written by John McCrae (1872-1918), who was a Canadian Lieutenant Colonel and doctor in the Netherlands in the First World War and who experienced the whole wartime atrocities at first hand, refers to the Corn Poppy as a symbol for this Remembrance Day.
In forceful words he portrays a beautiful but weird image of totally destroyed fields with a see of blooming vivid red Corn Poppies between bomb craters and soldiers killed in action.
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.
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
