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By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
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.
Capt John McCrae
The poppy, as a memorial flower to the war dead, can be traced to a single individual,
Miss Moina Michael of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary. In November of 1918, Miss Michael bought a bouquet of poppies and started handing them out to businessmen in New York.
Miss Michael was so moved by Col. McRae's poem, that she penned a response:
... the blood of heroes never dies
But lends a luster to the red
of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flander's Field.
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Flanders Field,
Ypres, Belgium,
December 8,
1915
Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial
The most asked question is: why poppies?
Wild poppies flower when other plants in their direct neighbourhood are dead. Their seeds can lie on the ground for years
and years, but only when there are no more competing flowers or shrubs in the vicinity (for instance when someone firmly roots
up the ground), these seeds will sprout.
There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up
soil. So in May 1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him bloodred poppies blossemed like no one had ever seen before.
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